High-throughput co-culture system for analysis of spatiotemporal cell-cell signaling.

ABSTRACT: Study of spatial and temporal aspects of signaling between individual cells is essential in understanding development, the immune response, and host-pathogen interactions. We present an automated high-throughput microfluidic platform that chemically stimulates immune cells to initiate cytokine secretion, and controls the formation of signal gradients that activate neighboring cell populations. Furthermore, our system enables controlling the cell type and density based on distance, and retrieval of cells from different regions for gene expression analysis. Our device performs these tasks in 192 independent chambers to simultaneously test different co-culture conditions. We demonstrate these capabilities by creating various cellular communication scenarios between macrophages and fibroblasts

SUBMITTER: Son M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9991101 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature