Author:
Meriem Zacchari Ben,Mateo Tiphaine,Faccini Julien,Denais Céline,Dusfour-Castan Romane,Guynet Catherine,Merle Tatiana,Suzanne Magali,Di-Luoffo Mickaël,Guillermet-Guibert Julie,Alric Baptiste,Landiech Sylvain,Malaquin Laurent,Mesnilgrente Fabien,Laborde Adrian,Mazenq Laurent,Courson Rémi,Delarue Morgan
Abstract
AbstractConventional culture conditions are oftentimes insufficient to study tissues, organisms, or 3D multicellular assemblies. They lack both dynamic chemical and mechanical control over the microenvironment. While specific microfluidic devices have been developed to address chemical control, they are often hard to use and do not allow the control of compressive forces. Here, we present a set of microfluidic devices which all rely on the use of sliding elements consisting of microfabricated rods that can be inserted inside a microfluidic device. Sliding elements enable the creation of reconfigurable sealed culture chambers for the study of whole organisms or model micro-tissues. By confining the micro-tissues, we studied the biophysical impact of growth-induced pressure and showed that this mechanical stress is associated with an increase in macromolecular crowding, shedding light on this understudied type of mechanical stress. Our mechano-chemostat is an easy-to-use microfluidic device that allows the long-term culture of biological samples and can be used to study both the impact of specific conditions as well as the consequences of mechanical compression.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory