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Schmitz J, Yermakov B, Grünberger A. Protocol for microfluidic single-cell cultivation and live-cell imaging of Chinese hamster ovary suspension cell lines. STAR Protoc 2024; 5:103106. [PMID: 38824641 PMCID: PMC11176845 DOI: 10.1016/j.xpro.2024.103106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2024] [Revised: 03/26/2024] [Accepted: 05/13/2024] [Indexed: 06/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Microfluidic single-cell cultivation (MSCC) is a powerful tool for investigating the cellular behavior of various cell types at the single-cell level. Here, we present a protocol specifically developed for the reliable and reproducible MSCC of industrially relevant Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) suspension cell lines. We summarize critical experimental steps from the initial seed train up to the final MSCC experiment, with a special focus on pre-culture management and medium preparation, device inoculation, and the establishment of a constant medium perfusion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julian Schmitz
- Multiscale Bioengineering, Faculty of Technology, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstraße 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany.
| | - Boris Yermakov
- Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences, Microsystems in Bioprocess Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Fritz-Haber-Weg 2, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Alexander Grünberger
- Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences, Microsystems in Bioprocess Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Fritz-Haber-Weg 2, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
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Halwes M, Stamp M, Collins DJ. A Rapid Prototyping Approach for Multi-Material, Reversibly Sealed Microfluidics. MICROMACHINES 2023; 14:2213. [PMID: 38138382 PMCID: PMC10745384 DOI: 10.3390/mi14122213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Revised: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023]
Abstract
Microfluidic organ-on-chip models recapitulate increasingly complex physiological phenomena to study tissue development and disease mechanisms, where there is a growing interest in retrieving delicate biological structures from these devices for downstream analysis. Standard bonding techniques, however, often utilize irreversible sealing, making sample retrieval unfeasible or necessitating destructive methods for disassembly. To address this, several commercial devices employ reversible sealing techniques, though integrating these techniques into early-stage prototyping workflows is often ignored because of the variation and complexity of microfluidic designs. Here, we demonstrate the concerted use of rapid prototyping techniques, including 3D printing and laser cutting, to produce multi-material microfluidic devices that can be reversibly sealed. This is enhanced via the incorporation of acrylic components directly into polydimethylsiloxane channel layers to enhance stability, sealing, and handling. These acrylic components act as a rigid surface separating the multiple mechanical seals created between the bottom substrate, the microfluidic features in the device, and the fluidic interconnect to external tubing, allowing for greater design flexibility. We demonstrate that these devices can be produced reproducibly outside of a cleanroom environment and that they can withstand ~1 bar pressures that are appropriate for a wide range of biological applications. By presenting an accessible and low-cost method, we hope to enable microfluidic prototyping for a broad range of biomedical research applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Halwes
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia; (M.H.); (M.S.)
- Graeme Clark Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia
| | - Melanie Stamp
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia; (M.H.); (M.S.)
- Graeme Clark Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia
| | - David J. Collins
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia; (M.H.); (M.S.)
- Graeme Clark Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia
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Blöbaum L, Täuber S, Grünberger A. Protocol to perform dynamic microfluidic single-cell cultivation of C. glutamicum. STAR Protoc 2023; 4:102436. [PMID: 37543944 PMCID: PMC10425941 DOI: 10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2023] [Revised: 05/12/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Here, we present a protocol for the design, fabrication, and usage of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based chip for dynamic microfluidic single-cell cultivation of Corynebacterium glutamicum. We describe steps for flow profile establishment and biological preparation. We then detail time-lapse imaging to observe reactions of C. glutamicum to repeated environmental changes in the range of seconds. This system can be adapted to other organisms with a cell wall and soluble non-gaseous environmental factors like nutrients. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Täuber et al..1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luisa Blöbaum
- Multiscale Bioengineering, Technical Faculty, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany; Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec), Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany.
| | - Sarah Täuber
- Multiscale Bioengineering, Technical Faculty, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany; Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec), Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Alexander Grünberger
- Multiscale Bioengineering, Technical Faculty, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany; Microsystems in Bioprocess Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
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Kasahara K, Leygeber M, Seiffarth J, Ruzaeva K, Drepper T, Nöh K, Kohlheyer D. Enabling oxygen-controlled microfluidic cultures for spatiotemporal microbial single-cell analysis. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1198170. [PMID: 37408642 PMCID: PMC10318409 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1198170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 05/30/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Microfluidic cultivation devices that facilitate O2 control enable unique studies of the complex interplay between environmental O2 availability and microbial physiology at the single-cell level. Therefore, microbial single-cell analysis based on time-lapse microscopy is typically used to resolve microbial behavior at the single-cell level with spatiotemporal resolution. Time-lapse imaging then provides large image-data stacks that can be efficiently analyzed by deep learning analysis techniques, providing new insights into microbiology. This knowledge gain justifies the additional and often laborious microfluidic experiments. Obviously, the integration of on-chip O2 measurement and control during the already complex microfluidic cultivation, and the development of image analysis tools, can be a challenging endeavor. A comprehensive experimental approach to allow spatiotemporal single-cell analysis of living microorganisms under controlled O2 availability is presented here. To this end, a gas-permeable polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic cultivation chip and a low-cost 3D-printed mini-incubator were successfully used to control O2 availability inside microfluidic growth chambers during time-lapse microscopy. Dissolved O2 was monitored by imaging the fluorescence lifetime of the O2-sensitive dye RTDP using FLIM microscopy. The acquired image-data stacks from biological experiments containing phase contrast and fluorescence intensity data were analyzed using in-house developed and open-source image-analysis tools. The resulting oxygen concentration could be dynamically controlled between 0% and 100%. The system was experimentally tested by culturing and analyzing an E. coli strain expressing green fluorescent protein as an indirect intracellular oxygen indicator. The presented system allows for innovative microbiological research on microorganisms and microbial ecology with single-cell resolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keitaro Kasahara
- IBG-1: Biotechnology, Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
| | - Markus Leygeber
- IBG-1: Biotechnology, Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
| | - Johannes Seiffarth
- IBG-1: Biotechnology, Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
- Computational Systems Biotechnology (AVT.CSB), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Karina Ruzaeva
- IBG-1: Biotechnology, Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
- Aachen Institute for Advanced Study in Computational Engineering Science (AICES), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Thomas Drepper
- Institute of Molecular Enzyme Technology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
| | - Katharina Nöh
- IBG-1: Biotechnology, Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
| | - Dietrich Kohlheyer
- IBG-1: Biotechnology, Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
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Biagini F, Daddi C, Calvigioni M, De Maria C, Zhang YS, Ghelardi E, Vozzi G. Designs and methodologies to recreate in vitro human gut microbiota models. Biodes Manuf 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s42242-022-00210-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
AbstractThe human gut microbiota is widely considered to be a metabolic organ hidden within our bodies, playing a crucial role in the host’s physiology. Several factors affect its composition, so a wide variety of microbes residing in the gut are present in the world population. Individual excessive imbalances in microbial composition are often associated with human disorders and pathologies, and new investigative strategies to gain insight into these pathologies and define pharmaceutical therapies for their treatment are needed. In vitro models of the human gut microbiota are commonly used to study microbial fermentation patterns, community composition, and host-microbe interactions. Bioreactors and microfluidic devices have been designed to culture microorganisms from the human gut microbiota in a dynamic environment in the presence or absence of eukaryotic cells to interact with. In this review, we will describe the overall elements required to create a functioning, reproducible, and accurate in vitro culture of the human gut microbiota. In addition, we will analyze some of the devices currently used to study fermentation processes and relationships between the human gut microbiota and host eukaryotic cells.
Graphic abstract
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Clerc T, Boscq S, Attia R, Kaminski Schierle GS, Charrier B, Läubli NF. Cultivation and Imaging of S. latissima Embryo Monolayered Cell Sheets Inside Microfluidic Devices. Bioengineering (Basel) 2022; 9:bioengineering9110718. [PMID: 36421119 PMCID: PMC9687954 DOI: 10.3390/bioengineering9110718] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2022] [Revised: 11/08/2022] [Accepted: 11/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The culturing and investigation of individual marine specimens in lab environments is crucial to further our understanding of this highly complex ecosystem. However, the obtained results and their relevance are often limited by a lack of suitable experimental setups enabling controlled specimen growth in a natural environment while allowing for precise monitoring and in-depth observations. In this work, we explore the viability of a microfluidic device for the investigation of the growth of the alga Saccharina latissima to enable high-resolution imaging by confining the samples, which usually grow in 3D, to a single 2D plane. We evaluate the specimen’s health based on various factors such as its growth rate, cell shape, and major developmental steps with regard to the device’s operating parameters and flow conditions before demonstrating its compatibility with state-of-the-art microscopy imaging technologies such as the skeletonisation of the specimen through calcofluor white-based vital staining of its cell contours as well as the immunolocalisation of the specimen’s cell wall. Furthermore, by making use of the on-chip characterisation capabilities, we investigate the influence of altered environmental illuminations on the embryonic development using blue and red light. Finally, live tracking of fluorescent microspheres deposited on the surface of the embryo permits the quantitative characterisation of growth at various locations of the organism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Clerc
- Morphogenesis of Macroalgae, Laboratory of Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, CNRS, Sorbonne University, 29680 Roscoff, France
| | - Samuel Boscq
- Morphogenesis of Macroalgae, Laboratory of Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, CNRS, Sorbonne University, 29680 Roscoff, France
| | - Rafaele Attia
- Ecology of Marine Plankton, Laboratory of Adaptation and Diversity in the Marine Environment, Station Biologique de Roscoff, CNRS, Sorbonne University, 29680 Roscoff, France
| | - Gabriele S. Kaminski Schierle
- Molecular Neuroscience Group, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0AS, UK
| | - Bénédicte Charrier
- Morphogenesis of Macroalgae, Laboratory of Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, CNRS, Sorbonne University, 29680 Roscoff, France
- Correspondence: (B.C.); (N.F.L.)
| | - Nino F. Läubli
- Molecular Neuroscience Group, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0AS, UK
- Correspondence: (B.C.); (N.F.L.)
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Microsystems for Cell Cultures. BIOSENSORS 2022; 12:bios12040190. [PMID: 35448250 PMCID: PMC9029303 DOI: 10.3390/bios12040190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
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