A microfluidic device for monitoring cell migration in 2D environment

              Vojtěch Ledvina^1,2, Karel Klepárník^1, Soňa Legartová^3, Eva Bártová^3

    ^1Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic

                  ^2Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

       ^3Institute of the Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic


Directed cell migration and invasion is a phenomenon that is closely related with physiological
processes like wound healing, tissue growth or tumor malignancy. In cancer, actively migrating
cells can detach from the primary tumor, penetrate into the blood stream and subsequently form
metastases in distant parts of the body which may significantly reduce the patient’s chance of
survival. The rate of migration speed of different cell types therefore provide a valuable
information on the potential malignancy.


To address these needs, we have developed a microfluidic device for testing the rate of migration
in large population of cells. The device was fabricated by standard soft-lithography technique and
direct molding of polydimethylsiloxane on a SU-8 negative master mold. The device consists of two
reservoirs connected by a 10 μm high channel that is barred by arrays of micropillars with
decreasing spacing. One reservoir is filled by cells suspended in serum-free medium and the other
by medium with 10% fetal bovine serum generating a nutrient gradient that induces active migration
through the pillar arrays. The migration process was monitored using an inverted microscope at
37°C, 5% CO[2] and 90% humidity. Such device could potentially find its use in personalized cancer
therapy but it can be used for studying other cell migration related processes as well.

The research was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, project no. 17-01995s (at the
IAC ASCR, v.v.i.) and by the Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the CAS under the Institutional
Research Plan RVO: 68081715.