Session: 06-02 Micro/Nanofluidic Sytems, Techniques and Devices

Paper Number: 87923

87923 - Fabrication of a Multi-Well Plate Channel Device With Reversible Seals 

Mechanical forces acting on cells have been recognized as an important aspect of cells’ environment. Cells respond to such forces, including fluid shear force, by giving feedback overtime for certain functions. For studying such mechanobiological responses of cells, multi-well plate microchannel devices have been used to apply flow shear stress on a cell culture for a long duration. The device is a series of enclosed microfluidic channels attached to the bottom of a standard multiple-well plate. Readily available multi-well plate channel devices are costly, and they allow neither direct access to cells cultured in the channel nor easy modification of the device.  

In this paper, we propose an easy-to-adopt fabrication method for a cost effective, open-source multi-well plate channel device with reversible seals. This device consists of two modules. For the top module, a standard 24-well plate is used as the base, and the plate is modified with holes drilled into each of the wells. A microchannel layer was fabricated using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and soft lithography, and it was permanently bonded to the bottom of the plate through plasma bonding. The bottom module is a detachable flow chamber layer made with Ecoflex, PDMS and transparent plastic film using soft lithography. Since Ecoflex can form weak bonding to PDMS, the flow chamber layer can be easily attached to, and then detached from, the PDMS layer of the top module. The weak bonding between Ecoflex and PDMS can create leak-free, reversible seals of the device.

As a proof-of-concept of the proposed method, we fabricated a prototype device and tested it by filling the device with dyed water. No leaking was observed. When the water was added to the inlet wells of the device, the hydrostatic pressure difference between the inlet and outlet wells created water flow through the flow chamber. Then, the device was disassembled, its modules were washed and dried, and it was re-assembled for further testing.

The proposed device has the following advantages. First, fabrication of the device is cost-effective because it can be easily created using inexpensive, common lab equipment and materials. Second, the proposed method allows easy modification of channel design. Last, having a reversible seal between the two modules allows for a cell culture to be removed from the device after flow shear force application for further analysis of the sample.

Presenting Author: Sangjin Ryu University of Nebraska-Lincoln