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Abstract
Electroporation (EP) is a commonly used strategy to increase cell permeability for intracellular cargo delivery or irreversible cell membrane disruption using electric fields. In recent years, EP performance has been improved by shrinking electrodes and device structures to the microscale. Integration with microfluidics has led to the design of devices performing static EP, where cells are fixed in a defined region, or continuous EP, where cells constantly pass through the device. Each device type performs superior to conventional, macroscale EP devices while providing additional advantages in precision manipulation (static EP) and increased throughput (continuous EP). Microscale EP is gentle on cells and has enabled more sensitive assaying of cells with novel applications. In this Review, we present the physical principles of microscale EP devices and examine design trends in recent years. In addition, we discuss the use of reversible and irreversible EP in the development of therapeutics and analysis of intracellular contents, among other noteworthy applications. This Review aims to inform and encourage scientists and engineers to expand the use of efficient and versatile microscale EP technologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sung-Eun Choi
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States
| | - Harrison Khoo
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States
| | - Soojung Claire Hur
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States
- Institute for NanoBioTechnology, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States
- Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States
- Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, 401 North Broadway, Baltimore, Maryland 21231, United States
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Sharma S, Venzac B, Burgers T, Le Gac S, Schlatt S. Microfluidics in male reproduction: is ex vivo culture of primate testis tissue a future strategy for ART or toxicology research? Mol Hum Reprod 2021; 26:179-192. [PMID: 31977028 DOI: 10.1093/molehr/gaaa006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2019] [Revised: 01/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
The significant rise in male infertility disorders over the years has led to extensive research efforts to recapitulate the process of male gametogenesis in vitro and to identify essential mechanisms involved in spermatogenesis, notably for clinical applications. A promising technology to bridge this research gap is organ-on-chip (OoC) technology, which has gradually transformed the research landscape in ART and offers new opportunities to develop advanced in vitro culture systems. With exquisite control on a cell or tissue microenvironment, customized organ-specific structures can be fabricated in in vitro OoC platforms, which can also simulate the effect of in vivo vascularization. Dynamic cultures using microfluidic devices enable us to create stimulatory effect and non-stimulatory culture conditions. Noteworthy is that recent studies demonstrated the potential of continuous perfusion in OoC systems using ex vivo mouse testis tissues. Here we review the existing literature and potential applications of such OoC systems for male reproduction in combination with novel bio-engineering and analytical tools. We first introduce OoC technology and highlight the opportunities offered in reproductive biology in general. In the subsequent section, we discuss the complex structural and functional organization of the testis and the role of the vasculature-associated testicular niche and fluid dynamics in modulating testis function. Next, we review significant technological breakthroughs in achieving in vitro spermatogenesis in various species and discuss the evidence from microfluidics-based testes culture studies in mouse. Lastly, we discuss a roadmap for the potential applications of the proposed testis-on-chip culture system in the field of primate male infertility, ART and reproductive toxicology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Swati Sharma
- Centre for Reproductive Medicine and Andrology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Bastien Venzac
- Applied Microfluidics for BioEngineering Research, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology and TechMed Centre, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
| | - Thomas Burgers
- Applied Microfluidics for BioEngineering Research, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology and TechMed Centre, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
| | - Séverine Le Gac
- Applied Microfluidics for BioEngineering Research, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology and TechMed Centre, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
| | - Stefan Schlatt
- Centre for Reproductive Medicine and Andrology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
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Yao C, Lv Y, Dong S, Zhao Y, Liu H. Irreversible electroporation ablation area enhanced by synergistic high- and low-voltage pulses. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0173181. [PMID: 28253331 PMCID: PMC5333894 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2016] [Accepted: 02/16/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Irreversible electroporation (IRE) produced by a pulsed electric field can ablate tissue. In this study, we achieved an enhancement in ablation area by using a combination of short high-voltage pulses (HVPs) to create a large electroporated area and long low-voltage pulses (LVPs) to ablate the electroporated area. The experiments were conducted in potato tuber slices. Slices were ablated with an array of four pairs of parallel steel electrodes using one of the following four electric pulse protocols: HVP, LVP, synergistic HVP+LVP (SHLVP) or LVP+HVP. Our results showed that the SHLVPs more effectively necrotized tissue than either the HVPs or LVPs, even when the SHLVP dose was the same as or lower than the HVP or LVP doses. The HVP and LVP order mattered and only HVPs+LVPs (SHLVPs) treatments increased the size of the ablation zone because the HVPs created a large electroporated area that was more susceptible to the subsequent LVPs. Real-time temperature change monitoring confirmed that the tissue was non-thermally ablated by the electric pulses. Theoretical calculations of the synergistic effects of the SHLVPs on tissue ablation were performed. Our proposed SHLVP protocol provides options for tissue ablation and may be applied to optimize the current clinical IRE protocols.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chenguo Yao
- The State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment & System Security and New Technology, School of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
- * E-mail:
| | - Yanpeng Lv
- The State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment & System Security and New Technology, School of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
| | - Shoulong Dong
- The State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment & System Security and New Technology, School of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
| | - Yajun Zhao
- The State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment & System Security and New Technology, School of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
| | - Hongmei Liu
- The State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment & System Security and New Technology, School of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
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Xu J, Kawano H, Liu W, Hanada Y, Lu P, Miyawaki A, Midorikawa K, Sugioka K. Controllable alignment of elongated microorganisms in 3D microspace using electrofluidic devices manufactured by hybrid femtosecond laser microfabrication. MICROSYSTEMS & NANOENGINEERING 2017; 3:16078. [PMID: 31057849 PMCID: PMC6444996 DOI: 10.1038/micronano.2016.78] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2016] [Revised: 09/22/2016] [Accepted: 10/20/2016] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
This paper presents a simple technique to fabricate new electrofluidic devices for the three-dimensional (3D) manipulation of microorganisms by hybrid subtractive and additive femtosecond (fs) laser microfabrication (fs laser-assisted wet etching of glass followed by water-assisted fs laser modification combined with electroless metal plating). The technique enables the formation of patterned metal electrodes in arbitrary regions in closed glass microfluidic channels, which can spatially and temporally control the direction of electric fields in 3D microfluidic environments. The fabricated electrofluidic devices were applied to nanoaquariums to demonstrate the 3D electro-orientation of Euglena gracilis (an elongated unicellular microorganism) in microfluidics with high controllability and reliability. In particular, swimming Euglena cells can be oriented along the z-direction (perpendicular to the device surface) using electrodes with square outlines formed at the top and bottom of the channel, which is quite useful for observing the motions of cells parallel to their swimming directions. Specifically, z-directional electric field control ensured efficient observation of manipulated cells on the front side (45 cells were captured in a minute in an imaging area of ~160×120 μm), resulting in a reduction of the average time required to capture the images of five Euglena cells swimming continuously along the z-direction by a factor of ~43 compared with the case of no electric field. In addition, the combination of the electrofluidic devices and dynamic imaging enabled observation of the flagella of Euglena cells, revealing that the swimming direction of each Euglena cell under the electric field application was determined by the initial body angle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Xu
- RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
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| | - Hiroyuki Kawano
- Laboratory for Cell Function Dynamics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Weiwei Liu
- Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Yasutaka Hanada
- RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Peixiang Lu
- Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
- Laboratory of Optical Information and Technology, School of Science, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430073, China
| | - Atsushi Miyawaki
- Laboratory for Cell Function Dynamics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Katsumi Midorikawa
- RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Koji Sugioka
- RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
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Xu J, Wu D, Ip JY, Midorikawa K, Sugioka K. Vertical sidewall electrodes monolithically integrated into 3D glass microfluidic chips using water-assisted femtosecond-laser fabrication for in situ control of electrotaxis. RSC Adv 2015. [DOI: 10.1039/c5ra00256g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Novel sidewall metal patterning with high flexibility enables facile integration of vertical electrodes in microchannels for in situ control of electrotaxis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Xu
- RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics
- Wako
- Japan
| | - Dong Wu
- RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics
- Wako
- Japan
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