Fabrication and Hydrodynamic Characterization of a Microfluidic Device for Cell Adhesion Tests in Polymeric Surfaces
J. Ponmozhi 
1
Transport Phenomena Research Center (CEFT), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
2
Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment (LEPABE), Biotechnology and Energy, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Micromachines 2019, 10(5), 303; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10050303
Received: 15 February 2019 / Revised: 26 April 2019 / Accepted: 29 April 2019 / Published: 5 May 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro/Nano Devices for Blood Analysis)
A fabrication method is developed to produce a microfluidic device to test cell adhesion to polymeric materials. The process is able to produce channels with walls of any spin coatable polymer. The method is a modification of the existing poly-dimethylsiloxane soft lithography method and, therefore, it is compatible with sealing methods and equipment of most microfluidic laboratories. The molds are produced by xurography, simplifying the fabrication in laboratories without sophisticated equipment for photolithography. The fabrication method is tested by determining the effective differences in bacterial adhesion in five different materials. These materials have different surface hydrophobicities and charges. The major drawback of the method is the location of the region of interest in a lowered surface. It is demonstrated by bacterial adhesion experiments that this drawback has a negligible effect on adhesion. The flow in the device was characterized by computational fluid dynamics and it was shown that shear stress in the region of interest can be calculated by numerical methods and by an analytical equation for rectangular channels. The device is therefore validated for adhesion tests.
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Keywords:
cell adhesion; biomedical coatings; microfabrication; computational fluid dynamics; microfluidics
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MDPI and ACS Style
Ponmozhi, J.; Moreira, J.M.R.; Mergulhão, F.J.; Campos, J.B.L.M.; Miranda, J.M. Fabrication and Hydrodynamic Characterization of a Microfluidic Device for Cell Adhesion Tests in Polymeric Surfaces. Micromachines 2019, 10, 303.
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