Abstract
A microfluidic device based on hydrodynamic fractionation with size was applied for separating muscle precursor cells from heterogeneous primary cells of muscle tissues. Although fabrications of engineered muscle with living cells have been developed, quality of prepared cells is serious for regenerative formation of fabricated muscles. We focused the relationship between cell size and quality of regenerative muscles in vitro. To confirm that, primary cells from rat limbs were separated into 4 fractions by cell size using microfluidic device. The mean size of cells in smallest fraction was around 15 microns. From the observation of muscle cell differentiations of each fraction, it was found that the smallest fraction had high regenerative activity of muscle formations. It suggested the potency of cell processing using microfluidic device for tissue engineering in regenerative medicine.
