1. Engineering of polarized tubular structures in a microfluidic device to study calcium phosphate stone formation
- Author
-
Zhihong Nie, Prince K. Amponsah, Mariyam Al-Shatti, Bidhan C. Bandyopadhyay, and Zengjiang Wei
- Subjects
Calcium Phosphates ,Confocal ,Microfluidics ,Biomedical Engineering ,chemistry.chemical_element ,Bioengineering ,Calcium ,Biochemistry ,Models, Biological ,Article ,Cell Line ,Kidney Calculi ,Cell polarity ,Monolayer ,Humans ,Ion transporter ,Ion channel ,Ion Transport ,Chemistry ,Calcinosis ,Cell Polarity ,Epithelial Cells ,General Chemistry ,Microfluidic Analytical Techniques ,Transport protein ,Biophysics ,Carrier Proteins - Abstract
This communication describes the formation of tubular structures with a circular cross-section by growing epithelial cells in a microfluidic (MF) device. Here we show for the first time that it is possible to form a monolayer of polarized cells, embedded within the MF device which can function as an in vivo epithelia. We showed: i) the overexpression of specific protein(s) of interest (i.e., ion channel and transport proteins) is feasible inside tubular structures in MFs; ii) the functional kinetic information of Ca(2+) in cells can be measured by microflurometry using cell permeable Ca(2+) probe under confocal microscope; and iii) calcium phosphate stones can be produced in real time in MFs with Ca(2+) transporting epithelia. These data suggest that tubular structures inside this MF platform can be used as a suitable model to understand the molecular and pharmacological basis of calcium phosphate stone formation in the epithelial or other similar cellular micro environments.
- Published
- 2012