A microfluidic device for monitoring cancer cell migration


Vojtěch Ledvina^1,2, Karel Klepárník^1


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

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




Directed cancer cell migration and invasion is a phenomenon that is closely related with tumor
malignancy. Actively migrating cells that detach from the primary tumor can penetrate into the
blood stream and subsequently form metastasis in distant parts of the body which significantly
reduces patient’s chance of survival. It is therefore important to correctly evaluate tumor
malignancy during diagnosis and then apply appropriate treatment.

To address these needs, we have developed a microfluidic device for testing the
epithelial-mesenchymal transition in large population of cancer cells. The device was fabricated by
standard soft-lithography technique and direct molding of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) on a SU-8
negative master mold. After oxygen plasma treatment, the PDMS chip was bonded to glass surface.

The device contains a main channel barred by arrays of micropillars with decreasing spacing that
simulate narrow pores within organs and tissues. Two ports are punched at the channel, inlet and
outlet, and filled with medium without fetal bovine serum (FBS) and medium with 10% FBS generating
a nutrient gradient that induces the active migration of cells towards the barriers. The cells are
loaded at the inlet and after adhesion to the surface their migratory potential and penetration
through the pillar arrays is monitored on an inverted microscope IX71 (Olympus) at 37°C, 5% CO[2]
and 90% humidity. Such a device can potentially find its use in personalized cancer therapy but it
can be used for studying other cell migration related processes like wound healing and tissue
growth as well.


The research was supported by Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, project No. 17-01995s and by
institutional support RVO 68081715 of the Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Czech Academy of
Sciences, v.v.i.