| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 奈米工程與微系統研究所 === 100 === Stem cells differentiation relies on microenvironment control for inductive signaling and initiation. In finding the optimum growth factor (GF) combinations for mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) differentiation into endothelial cells (ECs) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs), which are important cells for building blood vessels, we developed a continuous-flow cell culture plate with integrated microfluidic mixers. The continuous feeding of medium allows us to conduct long-term differentiation process of the ECs without moving the plate conventionally needed for changing the medium and further reduces the autocrine and paracrine signaling. The need to continuously supply medium in a few 10’s L/hr to the cells etc. determines the flow velocity and the needed mixer channel length. Since the molecular weight of these GFs are typically a few 10’s~100’s kDa in sizes, a conventional serpentine mixer with diffusion-limited laminar flow mixing will not mix the molecules adequately within a millimeter-size microfluidics channel. Therefore, the cell culture plate consists of a 7-stage staggered-herringbone-ridge serpentine mixers that enable GFs to mix completely within a few millimeters, and an array of cell culture wells.
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