A gel-free multi-well microfluidic device utilizing surface tension for cell culturing

This paper reports a gel-free multi-well microfluidic chip for cell cultures. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material was used because of its hydrophobic and gas-permeable features. Surface tension and fluidic channel resistance simplified the procedure of cell injection into the system. The shear stress and the mass-transfer perfusion medium reached a balance through the multi-row square-pillar microstructure and the driven pressure. The cell seeding was completed in 10-mm scaled culture wells in less than 6 s using the microstructure composed of PDMS. The adjustable initial cell density and length of the culture area facilitate its use in desired biological experiments. To verify whether the operation caused cell damage or not, the biological index of supernatants with glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were monitored for 4 days. The 1–4-mm-long multi-rows square-pillar microstructure can sustain HA22T cells for 5 days and still maintain cell viability for up to 90% of seeded cells.