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High-Throughput Microfluidic Platform for 3D Cultures of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

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3D Cell Culture

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1612))

Abstract

The design of innovative tools for generating physiologically relevant three-dimensional (3D) in vitro models has been recently recognized as a fundamental step to study cell responses and long-term tissue functionalities thanks to its ability to recapitulate the complexity and the dimensional scale of the cellular microenvironment, while directly integrating high-throughput and automatic screening capabilities.

This chapter addresses the development of a poly(dimethylsiloxane)-based microfluidic platform to (1) generate and culture 3D cellular microaggregates under continuous flow perfusion while (2) conditioning them with different combinations/concentrations of soluble factors (i.e., growth factors, morphogens or drug molecules), in a high-throughput fashion. The proposed microfluidic system thus represents a promising tool for establishing innovative high-throughput models for drug screening, investigation of tissues morphogenesis, and optimization of tissue engineering protocols.

*These authors equally contributed to the work.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partially supported by Fondazione Cariplo, grant no. 2012-0891.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133, Milano, Italy

      Paola Occhetta, Roberta Visone & Marco Rasponi

    2. Department of Biomedicine, University Hospital Basel, University Basel, Hebelstrasse 20, 4056, Basel, Switzerland

      Paola Occhetta

    Authors
    1. Paola Occhetta
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    2. Roberta Visone
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    3. Marco Rasponi
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    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to Marco Rasponi .

    Editor information

    Editors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Histology and Embryology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

      Zuzana Koledova

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    Occhetta, P., Visone, R., Rasponi, M. (2017). High-Throughput Microfluidic Platform for 3D Cultures of Mesenchymal Stem Cells. In: Koledova, Z. (eds) 3D Cell Culture. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1612. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7021-6_23

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7021-6_23

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    • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

    • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-7019-3

    • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-7021-6

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