1. Academic Validation
  2. Cryopreservable Through-Hole Arrays for the High-Throughput Three-Dimensional Smartphone-Based Cell Colorimetric Assay

Cryopreservable Through-Hole Arrays for the High-Throughput Three-Dimensional Smartphone-Based Cell Colorimetric Assay

  • ACS Sens. 2023 Jan 27. doi: 10.1021/acssensors.2c01564.
Chunqi Chang 1 2 Haoyi Yang 1 2 Wenchuan Bi 1 2 Cuier Huang 1 2 Zhen Xu 1 2 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 School of Biomedical Engineering Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
  • 2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
  • 3 Guangdong Key Laboratory of Nanomedicine, Shenzhen Engineering Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Nanoformulations, CAS-HK Joint Lab for Biomaterials, Research Laboratory for Biomedical Optics and Molecular Imaging, Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Molecular Imaging, CAS Key Lab for Health Informatics, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Abstract

In vitro assays are an important platform for Cancer research as they allow high-throughput experimentation that is not possible using in vivo Animals. Although various in vitro assays are developed to study cell viability or migration, many of these assays are often limited to two dimensions, involving complex procedures or relying specialized equipment, etc. Here, we designed a simple colorimetric assay that accommodates automatic liquid samples loading, high-throughput generation of chemical concentration gradient, three-dimensional (3D) Cell Culture establishment, and smartphone-based colorimetric readouts. This assay is based on through-hole arrays in the poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) layers. Liquid samples can be automatically loaded into through-hole arrays in PMMA layers by capillary force. Different drug concentrations can be generated by aligning and stacking to mix the contents of the corresponding through-holes with different volumes. 3D culture of Cancer cells can be established by the rapid absorption of cell suspensions into the macroporous gels. After exposing the 3D cultured cells to different drug concentrations, the number of viable cells and migrated cells was reflected by the color change of Alamar blue, which enable on-site readout by a smartphone. This assay can study cell viability as well as cell migration, the two main characteristics of Cancer cells, using one device. Interestingly, HeLa cells remained with high viability after cryopreservation at -80 °C, which allows for storage and distribution using dry ice. The simple protocol, along with the cryopreservability at -80 °C facilitates its ease of use to study cell viability together with cell migration in common laboratories or clinical settings.

Keywords

3D culture; cryopreservation; high-throughput screening; smartphone-based; through-hole arrays.

Figures
Products