Mammary Chip Summary
Microfluidic breast chip is a micro bioreactor used to mimic breast tissue, which can reconstruct the structure and function of breast tissue in vitro, and is used to study the mechanism of breast cancer occurrence and development as well as to screen drugs.
The chip employs microfluidics to control the flow of fluids at the micron scale, enabling trace substances such as cells, growth factors and drugs to undergo complex reaction processes within the chip.
Microfluidic breast microarrays are usually composed of micro bioreactors, microfluidic systems, detection systems, etc., which can simulate the microenvironment of breast tissues, including cell-cell interactions, cell-matrix interactions, and interactions between cells and microenvironmental factors (e.g., drugs, hormones, etc.).
Through this simulation, researchers can more realistically observe the mechanism of breast cancer occurrence and development, and it can be used for the screening of personalized treatment plans for breast cancer.
Research on microfluidic breast microarrays is still in the early stages of development, but some important advances have been made, such as the possibility of reconstructing the structure of breast lobules and studying the mechanisms of breast cancer cell-microenvironment interactions.
In the future, the microfluidic breast chip will continue to develop, for example, it can be combined with other microfluidic chips to establish a more complex tumor organ chip, and further in-depth study of the mechanism of tumorigenesis.
Experimental Methods for Mammary Microarrays
The Microfluidic Mammary Chip is an in vitro bionic breast tissue model that can be used to explore mammary gland development, cancer occurrence and treatment by simulating the in vivo environment. The experimental methodology of the Mammary Chip is as follows:
- Preparation of microchips: Microfluidic channels and corresponding structures, such as mammary ducts, glandular vesicles, etc., are fabricated on a chip using micro- and nanofabrication techniques.
- Cell culture: Mammary epithelial cells and mammary mesenchymal stromal cells are cultured separately on the chip to form a three-dimensional tissue structure. A variety of cell culture techniques can be used, such as static and dynamic culture.
- Fluid injection: The culture medium is injected into the microfluidic channel, and the flow rate and flow direction are controlled by the microfluidic chip system to simulate the in vivo environment. A variety of bioactive molecules, such as hormones and drugs, can be added.
- Observation and analysis: Use microscope, fluorescence microscope and other tools to observe changes in cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, etc., and perform functional analysis of the chip, e.g., to study the effects of drugs by measuring cell membrane potential and cell signaling, etc.
The experimental methodology of mammary microarrays can be flexibly adapted to the specific research question, e.g., different types of cells can be used, different biologically active substances can be added, etc.
Recent advances in breast microarrays
Microfluidic breast microarrays are an important bionic model for studying the mechanisms of breast biology and carcinogenesis, as well as for drug screening and therapeutic studies. In recent years, the research progress of microfluidic breast microarrays is as follows:
- Tissue engineering: By combining 3D printing technology and microfluidics, it is possible to better rebuild the structure of breast tissue, including ducts, alveoli, basement membranes, and other structures, enabling the engineering of breast tissue.
- Gene editing: Through CRISPR/Cas9 and other gene editing technologies, genes in breast cells can be precisely edited to study the effects of genes on mammary gland development and the occurrence of breast cancer, providing new ideas for precision medicine research.
- Single-cell analysis: By encapsulating individual cells in a microfluidic chip, individual cells can be analyzed for gene expression, metabolite secretion, and other analyses, allowing in-depth study of cellular heterogeneity and cell signaling networks.
- Tumor model: Using microfluidic breast microarrays can simulate the tumor microenvironment, study the interaction between tumor cells and surrounding tissue cells, and explore tumorigenesis and treatment.
- Microfluidic Tissue Chip Combination: Combining Microfluidic Breast Chip with other tissue chips, such as Liver Chip, Lung Chip, etc., allows us to study the interactions and effects between different tissues, and to improve the biological authenticity and reliability of the study.
In the future, microfluidic breast microarray research will focus more on precision medical research of breast cancer, including tumor microenvironment, tumor stem cells, tumor immunotherapy, etc., to provide more effective methods and strategies for breast cancer treatment.
Meanwhile, joint research with other microfluidic organ chips will become a hot direction in the future.
Recommended Literature Reading for Breast Chips
- “Microfluidic platforms for modeling breast cancer organotypic microenvironments” (2021)
This review article summarizes the current research progress in microfluidic breast microarrays and introduces different tissue microarray platforms and their applications, including fat, blood vessels, and extracellular matrix. In addition, the article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these platforms for breast cancer simulation, as well as future directions.
- “A high-throughput, multiplexed assay for quantitative analysis of 3D multicellular assays in microfabricated hydrogels” (2021)
This article reports a new microfluidic breast microarray platform for high-throughput quantitative analysis of drug effects in three-dimensional multicellular models. The platform consists of hundreds of tiny grooves and channels for immobilizing and culturing multiple cell types.
With this platform, multiple drugs and doses can be tested simultaneously and rapidly analyzed in a matter of hours. The authors applied the platform to drug screening and cell interaction studies, providing new ideas for developing more effective anti-breast cancer drugs in the future.
These studies indicate that microfluidics has a broad application in the field of breast cancer research and is expected to advance our understanding of the disease and accelerate the development and translation of new drugs.
Organ-on-a-chip model
Cell migration microarrays to study cell-to-cell interactions and the effects of perfusion versus diffusion-based, real-time analysis of experiments with all cell populations, Cell migration microarrays are designed to mimic the formation and transport of tight and gap junctions (e.g., the blood-brain barrier and other endothelial/tissue interfaces), and are available with a wide range of choices in channel sizes, tissue compartment sizes, and scaffolds, as well as barrier designs.
Slit Barrier or Pillar Barrier Options
Slit Barrier: This device utilizes slits spaced at regular intervals to form a barrier area between the outer and inner chambers.
Available standard design parameters include:
- Outer Channel Width (OC): 100 μm or 200 μm
- Stroke width (T): 50 μm or 100 μm
- Slit Spacing (SS): 50 µm or 100 µm
- Slit width (WS): 5um, variable
DXFLUIDICS
Dxfluidics is a specialized enterprise dedicated to customizing various microfluidic organ chips. With a highly skilled and experienced processing team, we offer one-stop organ chip processing services for our clients. The company is committed to providing high-quality, high-performance biochip products for the fields of biomedicine, biomedicine, bio-detection, cell culture, and more.
Let the flower of life bloom more beautifully, Dxfluidics microfluidic organ chips make miniature life experiments more precise!
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