Paper-based cell culture microfluidic system

In the past decades, glass/PDMS-based microfluidic systems have been rapidly developed to provide homogenous and stable microenvironment for culturing cells. Although these excellent demonstrations involve much simplified operations than traditional cell culture protocol, but they are still not readily accessible to untrained personnel and not appropriate to operate in conventional biological laboratories. In this work, cellulose filter papers were used for the substrates of the cell culture microfluidic system, which provides a convenient tool for cell-based assay. A paper was patterned with culture areas and channels by wax printing technique. Medium or tested substance can be passively perfused to the culture areas. Analyses of cyto-compatibility, cell proliferation, cell morphology, and cell chemosensitivity were performed to confirm the possibility of the paper-based system. The culture system could provide a platform for a wide range of cell-based assays with applications in drug screening and quantitative cell biology. This work demonstrated a paper-based cell culture microfluidic system and the system is inexpensive, disposable, and compatible to the existing culture facility.