Effects of Pulse Interval and Dosing Flux on Cells Varying the Relative Velocity of Micro Droplets and Culture Solution

• Main Authors: Zhanwei Wang, Kun Liu, Jiuxin Ning, Shulei Chen, Ming Hao, Dongyang Wang, Qi Mei, Yaoshuai Ba, Dechun Ba
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-08-01
• Series: Processes
• Subjects: cell dosing; microdroplet; convective diffusion; interdiffusion; numerical simulation
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/6/8/119

Microdroplet dosing to cell on a chip could meet the demand of narrow diffusion distance, controllable pulse dosing and less impact to cells. In this work, we studied the diffusion process of microdroplet cell pulse dosing in the three-layer sandwich structure of PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane)/PCTE (polycarbonate) microporous membrane/PDMS chip. The mathematical model is established to solve the diffusion process and the process of rhodamine transfer to micro-traps is simulated. The rhodamine mass fraction distribution, pressure field and velocity field around the microdroplet and cell surfaces are analyzed for further study of interdiffusion and convective diffusion effect. The cell pulse dosing time and drug delivery efficiency could be controlled by adjusting microdroplet and culture solution velocity without impairing cells at micro-traps. Furthermore, the accuracy and controllability of the cell dosing pulse time and maximum drug mass fraction on cell surfaces are achieved and the drug effect on cells could be analyzed more precisely especially for neuron cell dosing.