Physiologically relevant in vitro tissue models and their promise of better predictability have the potential to improve drug screening outcomes in preclinical research. Despite, the advances of spheroid models in pharmaceutical screening applications, variations in spheroid size and consequential altered cell responses traditionally have led to non-reproducible and unpredictable results. Therefore, a group of scientists at the Medical University of Vienna, have recently designed, fabricated, and tested a microfluidic chip system capable of reliably generating many spheroids of defined sizes, which can be readily integrated into pharmaceutical workflows.
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Scientists at the Medical University of Vienna and Technical University of Vienna have established and characterized a novel microfluidic multisize spheroid array using liver, lung, colon, and skin cells as well as a triple-culture model of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to assess the effects of spheroid size on anticancer drug toxicity and compound penetration across an advanced Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) model (Fig.1).
The team at the Medical University of Vienna have used Lipidure® – CM5206 to coat channels in their novel microfluidic devices, to prevent cell adhesion.
What is Lipidure?
Lipidure®-CM5206 is a biocompatible and hydrophilic white copolymer made up of repeating units of 2-(methacryloyoxy) ethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC). Lipidure®-CM5206 is designed to mimic the cell membrane surface and its molecular structure is the key for its highly hydrophilic nature and extremely low toxicity.
In addition, Lipidure® coating of microtitre plates and microfluidic devices provides a superior low attachment surface to produce state-of-the-art 3D cell culture. Formation of organoids, spheroids, tumorspheres, embryoid bodies and neurospheres using Lipidure® coated microtitre plates have been demonstrated for cell types including ES and iPS (human and mouse), NIH3T3, pre-adipocytes, HepG2 and other cancer cell lines as well as primary neuronal cells.
Dr Mario Rothbauer, a Group Leader at the Medical University of Vienna, has commented:
I’ve worked with anti-fouling surfaces for cell-based applications my entire career and so far, the Lipidure®-CM5206 has proved to be the most reliable and straight-forward approach for generation of cell repellent surfaces on microtitre plates, as well as more the complex culture environments of microfluidic, lab-on-a-chip, and organ-on-a-chip systems. For our latest project we screened a panel of primary and cancer cell lines including lung, liver, gut, dermal fibroblasts and brain endothelial cells; Lipidure®-CM5206 did not let us down a single time throughout those many years.
Further Reading
- To read the Medical University of Vienna paper ‘A Microfluidic Multisize Spheroid Array for Multiparametric Screening of Anticancer Drugs and Blood–Brain Barrier Transport Properties’ please visit https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/advs.202004856
- Rothbauer, M., Byrne, R. A., Schobesberger, S., Calvo, I. O., Fischer, A., Reihs, E., … & Ertl, P. (2021). Establishment of a human three-dimensional chip-based chondro-synovial co-culture joint model for reciprocal crosstalk studies in arthritis research. Lab on a Chip please visit doi: 10.1039/d1lc00130b
- See our full guide on the use of Lipidure®-CM5206 coated low adhesion microtitre plates and microfluidic devices: www.amsbio.com/Lipidure-Coat.aspx or
- For inquiries, contact us now on +44-1235-828200 / +1-617-945-5033 / [email protected].