Microfluidics-enabled 96-well perfusion system for high-throughput tissue engineering and long-term all-optical electrophysiology

Abstract

This work demonstrates a novel high-throughput (HT) microfluidics-enabled uninterrupted perfusion system (HT-μUPS) and validates its use with chronic all-optical electrophysiology in human excitable cells. HT-μUPS consists of a soft multichannel microfluidic plate cover which could button on a commercial HT 96-well plate. Herein, we demonstrate the manufacturing process of the system and its usages in acute and chronic all-optical electrophysiological studies of human induced pluripotent stem-cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CM) and engineered excitable (spiking HEK) cells. HT-μUPS perfusion maintained functional voltage and calcium responses in iPSC-CM and spiking HEK cells under spontaneous conditions and under optogenetic pacing. Long-term culture with HT-μUPS improved cell viability and optogenetically-tracked calcium responses in spiking HEK cells. The simplicity of this design and its compatibility with HT all-optical electrophysiology can empower cell-based assays for personalized medicine using patient-derived cells.