Shourabi, A.Y.; Salajeghe, R.; Barisam, M.; Kashaninejad, N. A Proof-of-Concept Study Using Numerical Simulations of an Acoustic Spheroid-on-a-Chip Platform for Improving 3D Cell Culture. Sensors2021, 21, 5529.
Shourabi, A.Y.; Salajeghe, R.; Barisam, M.; Kashaninejad, N. A Proof-of-Concept Study Using Numerical Simulations of an Acoustic Spheroid-on-a-Chip Platform for Improving 3D Cell Culture. Sensors 2021, 21, 5529.
Shourabi, A.Y.; Salajeghe, R.; Barisam, M.; Kashaninejad, N. A Proof-of-Concept Study Using Numerical Simulations of an Acoustic Spheroid-on-a-Chip Platform for Improving 3D Cell Culture. Sensors2021, 21, 5529.
Shourabi, A.Y.; Salajeghe, R.; Barisam, M.; Kashaninejad, N. A Proof-of-Concept Study Using Numerical Simulations of an Acoustic Spheroid-on-a-Chip Platform for Improving 3D Cell Culture. Sensors 2021, 21, 5529.
Abstract
Microfluidic lab-on-chip devices are widely being developed for chemical and biological studies. One of the most commonly used types of these chips is perfusion microwells for culturing multicellular spheroids. The main challenge in such systems is the formation of substantial necrotic and hypoxic zones within the cultured spheroids. Herein, we propose a novel acoustofluidic integrated platform to tackle this bottleneck problem. We show that such an approach enhances cell viability and shrinks necrotic and hypoxic zones in these spheroid-on-a-chip platforms without the need to increase the flow rate, leading to a significant reduction in costly reagents' consumption. Proof-of-concept, designing procedures, and finite element numerical simulation are discussed in details. Also, the effects of acoustic and hydrodynamic parameters on the cultured cells are investigated. The results show that by increasing acoustic boundary displacement amplitude (d0), the spheroid’s proliferating zone enlarges greatly. Moreover, it is shown that by implementing d0=0.5 nm, the required flow rate to maintain the necrotic zone below 13% will be decreased 12 times compared to non-acoustic chips.
Keywords
Lab-On-Chip; Acoustic Microfluidics; Spheroid-On-Chip; Necrotic and hypoxic zones
Subject
Engineering, Automotive Engineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
