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Micromachines
Special Issues
Morphology and Mechanics in Microfluidics
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Morphology and Mechanics in Microfluidics

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "E：Engineering and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 8654

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jason P. Beech

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Division of Solid State Physics and NanoLund, Physics Department, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden
Interests: microfluidics; nanofluidics; particle separation; DNA mechanics; DNA separation; microscopy; microfabrication; electrokinetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Along with smell and taste, morphology is possibly the oldest of all biomarkers. While size has long been accessible as a handle for the manipulation and separation of microscopic entities, using sieving for example, other physical attributes have been more elusive as useful parameters. Visual inspection in a microscope and its modern camera and computer-aided equivalents have been used to draw a wealth of information from morphology, but only recently have mechanical properties been added to the list of label-free physical properties that can be probed. As the toolbox has expanded, so has our understanding of just how important the mechanical properties of biological entities are; from proteins, via cells, through tissue and whole organisms. Now, the list of disease states without a known or suspected mechanical component is rapidly shrinking. Microfluidics has been instrumental in this development.

This Special Edition seeks to gather research papers and review articles that will showcase the new techniques and novel methodologies that are being developed in the field. Any work relating to the measurement or manipulation of entities based on morphology and/or mechanical properties, including but not limited to fluidics, imaging, sorting, electrokinetics, cell–structure interactions, and optical methods is welcome.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Dr. Jason Beech
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • deformability
  • biomechanics
  • cell mechanics
  • softness
  • morphology
  • label-free sorting
  • invasiveness
  • viscoelasticity
  • hydrodynamic shear

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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10 pages, 3259 KiB  
Article
Microfluidic Obstacle Arrays Induce Large Reversible Shape Change in Red Blood Cells
by David W. Inglis, Robert E. Nordon, Jason P. Beech and Gary Rosengarten
Micromachines 2021, 12(7), 783; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12070783 - 30 Jun 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3136
Abstract
Red blood cell (RBC) shape change under static and dynamic shear stress has been a source of interest for at least 50 years. High-speed time-lapse microscopy was used to observe the rate of deformation and relaxation when RBCs are subjected to periodic shear [...] Read more.
Red blood cell (RBC) shape change under static and dynamic shear stress has been a source of interest for at least 50 years. High-speed time-lapse microscopy was used to observe the rate of deformation and relaxation when RBCs are subjected to periodic shear stress and deformation forces as they pass through an obstacle. We show that red blood cells are reversibly deformed and take on characteristic shapes not previously seen in physiological buffers when the maximum shear stress was between 2.2 and 25 Pa (strain rate 2200 to 25,000 s−1). We quantify the rates of RBC deformation and recovery using Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. The time to deformation decreased from 320 to 23 milliseconds with increasing flow rates, but the distance traveled before deformation changed little. Shape recovery, a measure of degree of deformation, takes tens of milliseconds at the lowest flow rates and reached saturation at 2.4 s at a shear stress of 11.2 Pa indicating a maximum degree of deformation was reached. The rates and types of deformation have relevance in red blood cell disorders and in blood cell behavior in microfluidic devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Morphology and Mechanics in Microfluidics)
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12 pages, 6070 KiB  
Article
Numerical Analysis of Thermophoresis of a Charged Spheroidal Colloid in Aqueous Media
by Yi Zhou, Yang Yang, Changxing Zhu, Mingyuan Yang and Yi Hu
Micromachines 2021, 12(2), 224; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12020224 - 23 Feb 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2383
Abstract
Thermophoresis of charged colloids in aqueous media has wide applications in biology. Most existing studies of thermophoresis focused on spherical particles, but biological compounds are usually non-spherical. The present paper reports a numerical analysis of the thermophoresis of a charged spheroidal colloid in [...] Read more.
Thermophoresis of charged colloids in aqueous media has wide applications in biology. Most existing studies of thermophoresis focused on spherical particles, but biological compounds are usually non-spherical. The present paper reports a numerical analysis of the thermophoresis of a charged spheroidal colloid in aqueous media. The model accounts for the strongly coupled temperature field, the flow field, the electric potential field, and the ion concentration field. Numerical simulations revealed that prolate spheroids move faster than spherical particles, and oblate spheroids move slower than spherical particles. For the arbitrary electric double layer (EDL) thickness, the thermodiffusion coefficient of prolate (oblate) spheroids increases (decreases) with the increasing particle’s dimension ratio between the major and minor semiaxes. For the extremely thin EDL case, the hydrodynamic effect is significant, and the thermodiffusion coefficient for prolate (oblate) spheroids converges to a fixed value with the increasing particle’s dimension ratio. For the extremely thick EDL case, the particle curvature’s effect also becomes important, and the increasing (decreasing) rate of thermodiffusion coefficient for prolate (oblate) spheroids is reduced slightly. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Morphology and Mechanics in Microfluidics)
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16 pages, 1329 KiB  
Article
Modeling of Endothelial Calcium Responses within a Microfluidic Generator of Spatio-Temporal ATP and Shear Stress Signals
by Yong-Jiang Li, Miao Yu, Chun-Dong Xue, Hai-Jun Zhang, Guo-Zhen Wang, Xiao-Ming Chen and Kai-Rong Qin
Micromachines 2021, 12(2), 161; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12020161 - 7 Feb 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2302
Abstract
Intracellular calcium dynamics play essential roles in the proper functioning of cellular activities. It is a well known important chemosensing and mechanosensing process regulated by the spatio-temporal microenvironment. Nevertheless, how spatio-temporal biochemical and biomechanical stimuli affect calcium dynamics is not fully understood and [...] Read more.
Intracellular calcium dynamics play essential roles in the proper functioning of cellular activities. It is a well known important chemosensing and mechanosensing process regulated by the spatio-temporal microenvironment. Nevertheless, how spatio-temporal biochemical and biomechanical stimuli affect calcium dynamics is not fully understood and the underlying regulation mechanism remains missing. Herein, based on a developed microfluidic generator of biochemical and biomechanical signals, we theoretically analyzed the generation of spatio-temporal ATP and shear stress signals within the microfluidic platform and investigated the effect of spatial combination of ATP and shear stress stimuli on the intracellular calcium dynamics. The simulation results demonstrate the capacity and flexibility of the microfluidic system in generating spatio-temporal ATP and shear stress. Along the transverse direction of the microchannel, dynamic ATP signals of distinct amplitudes coupled with identical shear stress are created, which induce the spatio-temporal diversity in calcium responses. Interestingly, to the multiple combinations of stimuli, the intracellular calcium dynamics reveal two main modes: unimodal and oscillatory modes, showing significant dependence on the features of the spatio-temporal ATP and shear stress stimuli. The present study provides essential information for controlling calcium dynamics by regulating spatio-temporal biochemical and biomechanical stimuli, which shows the potential in directing cellular activities and understanding the occurrence and development of disease. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Morphology and Mechanics in Microfluidics)
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