Microfluidic add-on for standard electrophysiology chambers

Abstract

We have developed a microfluidic brain slice device (μBSD) that marries an off-the shelf brain slice perfusion chamber with an array of microfluidic channels set into the bottom surface of the chamber substrate. As this device is created through rapid prototyping, once optimized, it is trivial to replicate and share the devices with other investigators. The device integrates seamlessly into standard physiology and imaging chambers and it is immediately available to the whole slice physiology community. With this technology we can address the flow of neurochemicals and any other soluble factors to precise locations in the brain slice with the temporal profile we choose. Dopamine (DA) was chosen as a model neurotransmitter and we have quantified delivery in brain tissue using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and fluorescence imaging.