ABSTRACT
While the amount of research examining the effects of mechanical force stimuli on biological responses of various cells is growing, the understanding is incomplete due to limited approaches. To perform rigorous investigations of complex biological systems, it is desirable to examine the cells in question under a wide range of experimental conditions. Due to the limited capabilities of commercially available systems, investigators often design and fabricate custom setups, which can be costly and difficult to replicate. Another issue associated with the investigation of mechanobiology is that the assessment of molecular-level responses using techniques, such as immunoblotting, requires a large quantity of protein samples from each experiment and thus requires a large number of cells. This too can be costly with large quantities of cells and culture reagents needed. Because of the parallel processing ability and high-throughput nature at relatively lower costs of microfluidics, several attempts have been made in applying microscale fluid formats toward mechanobiology research. While it is still relatively new technology, researchers are beginning to take advantage of the numerous appealing features of microfluidics in the culturing of hepatocytes, epithelial cells, and bone cells, as well as in the investigation of the effects of fluid flow on vascular, renal, skeletal, and stem cells. This chapter reviews the basics of microfluidics, design criteria for devices in biological applications, and the current literature in mechanobiology research using microfluidic devices.
