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A microfluidic trap array for longitudinal monitoring and multi-modal phenotypic analysis of individual stem cell aggregates.

ABSTRACT: Three-dimensional pluripotent stem cell (PSC) cultures have the ability to undergo differentiation, self-organization, and morphogenesis to yield complex, in vitro tissue models that recapitulate key elements of native tissues. These tissue models offer a system for studying mechanisms of tissue development, investigating disease mechanisms, and performing drug screening. It remains challenging, however, to standardize PSC aggregate differentiation and morphogenesis methods due to heterogeneity stemming from biological and environmental sources. It is also difficult to monitor and assess large numbers of individual samples longitudinally throughout culture using typical batch-based culture methods. To address these challenges, we have developed a microfluidic platform for culture, longitudinal monitoring, and phenotypic analysis of individual stem cell aggregates. This platform uses a hydrodynamic loading principle to capture pre-formed stem cell aggregates in independent traps. We demonstrated that multi-day culture of aggregates in this platform reduces heterogeneity in phenotypic parameters such as size and morphology. Additionally, we showed that culture and analysis steps can be performed sequentially in the same platform, enabling correlation of multiple modes of analysis for individual samples. We anticipate this platform being applied to improve abilities for phenotypic analysis of PSC aggregate tissues and to facilitate research in standardizing culture systems in order to dually increase the yield and reduce the heterogeneity of PSC-derived tissues.

SUBMITTER: Jackson-Holmes EL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5656523 | biostudies-other | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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A microfluidic trap array for longitudinal monitoring and multi-modal phenotypic analysis of individual stem cell aggregates.

Jackson-Holmes E L EL McDevitt T C TC Lu H H

Lab on a chip 20171001 21

Three-dimensional pluripotent stem cell (PSC) cultures have the ability to undergo differentiation, self-organization, and morphogenesis to yield complex, in vitro tissue models that recapitulate key elements of native tissues. These tissue models offer a system for studying mechanisms of tissue development, investigating disease mechanisms, and performing drug screening. It remains challenging, however, to standardize PSC aggregate differentiation and morphogenesis methods due to heterogeneity ...[more]

PMID: 28952622

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Project description:Multi-electrode arrays, both active or passive, emerged as ideal technologies to unveil intricated electrophysiological dynamics of cells and tissues. Active MEAs, designed using complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology (CMOS), stand over passive devices thanks to the possibility of achieving single-cell resolution, the reduced electrode size, the reduced crosstalk and the higher functionality and portability. Nevertheless, most of the reported CMOS MEA systems mainly rely on a single operational modality, which strongly hampers the applicability range of a single device. This can be a limiting factor considering that most biological and electrophysiological dynamics are often based on the synergy of multiple and complex mechanisms acting from different angles on the same phenomena. Here, we designed a CMOS MEA chip with 16,384 titanium nitride electrodes, 6 independent operational modalities and 1,024 parallel recording channels for neuro-electrophysiological studies. Sixteen independent active areas are patterned on the chip surface forming a 4 × 4 matrix, each one including 1,024 electrodes. Electrodes of four different sizes are present on the chip surface, ranging from 2.5 × 3.5 ?m2 up to 11 × 11.0 ?m2, with 15 ?m pitch. In this paper, we exploited the impedance monitoring and voltage recording modalities not only to monitor the growth and development of primary rat hippocampal neurons, but also to assess their electrophysiological activity over time showing a mean spike amplitude of 144.8 ± 84.6 ?V. Fixed frequency (1 kHz) and high sampling rate (30 kHz) impedance measurements were used to evaluate the cellular adhesion and growth on the chip surface. Thanks to the high-density configuration of the electrodes, as well as their dimension and pitch, the chip can appreciate the evolutions of the cell culture morphology starting from the moment of the seeding up to mature culture conditions. The measurements were confirmed by fluorescent staining. The effect of the different electrode sizes on the spike amplitudes and noise were also discussed. The multi-modality of the presented CMOS MEA allows for the simultaneous assessment of different physiological properties of the cultured neurons. Therefore, it can pave the way both to answer complex fundamental neuroscience questions as well as to aid the current drug-development paradigm.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Clinical phenotypic heterogeneity represents a major barrier to trials in motor neuron disease (MND) and objective surrogate outcome measures are required, especially for slowly progressive patients. We assessed responsiveness of clinical, electrophysiological and radiological muscle-based assessments to detect MND-related progression. MATERIALS AND METHODS:A prospective, longitudinal cohort study of 29 MND patients and 22 healthy controls was performed. Clinical measures, electrophysiological motor unit number index/size (MUNIX/MUSIX) and relative T2- and diffusion-weighted whole-body muscle magnetic resonance (MR) were assessed three times over 12 months. Multi-variable regression models assessed between-group differences, clinico-electrophysiological associations, and longitudinal changes. Standardized response means (SRMs) assessed sensitivity to change over 12 months. RESULTS:MND patients exhibited 18% higher whole-body mean muscle relative T2-signal than controls (95% CI 7-29%, p?<?0.01), maximal in leg muscles (left tibialis anterior 71% (95% CI 33-122%, p?<?0.01). Clinical and electrophysiological associations were evident. By 12 months, 16 patients had died or could not continue. In the remainder, relative T2-signal increased over 12 months by 14-29% in right tibialis anterior, right quadriceps, bilateral hamstrings and gastrocnemius/soleus (p?<?0.01), independent of onset-site, and paralleled progressive weakness and electrophysiological loss of motor units. Highest clinical, electrophysiological and radiological SRMs were found for revised ALS-functional rating scale scores (1.22), tibialis anterior MUNIX (1.59), and relative T2-weighted leg muscle MR (right hamstrings: 0.98), respectively. Diffusion MR detected minimal changes. CONCLUSION:MUNIX and relative T2-weighted MR represent objective surrogate markers of progressive denervation in MND. Radiological changes were maximal in leg muscles, irrespective of clinical onset-site.

Dataset Information

A microfluidic trap array for longitudinal monitoring and multi-modal phenotypic analysis of individual stem cell aggregates.

Publications

A microfluidic trap array for longitudinal monitoring and multi-modal phenotypic analysis of individual stem cell aggregates.

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