J0207-2-1 Heterotypic cell positioning using electroosmotic flow and observation of cell-cell interactions

Abstract

This paper presents a novel technique of positioning heterotypic cells using electroosmotic flow (EOF). Positioning heterotypic cells is a key technique toward the development of single cell analysis. Several techniques for positioning cells have been developed, such as using dielectrophoresis and physical trapping in microchannel. These techniques, however, require additional methods for subsequent biological experiments after arraying cells. In this study, we demonstrated the positioning of two kinds of cells at designated pocket-like microstructures. In this method, cells were positioned using multi-directional EOF in open-to-air flow chamber which would allow easy handling for further biological experiments. After positioning heterotypic cells, we cultivated them and observed cell-cell interactions via gap junctions by the transfer of a fluorescent dye.