I'm doing a flow experiment, flowing single MCF7 cells through PDMS microfluidic chips (connected to a glass microscope slide). Currently, I'm using a Pluronic F127 (0.1 wt%) coating. However, many cells still adhere to the glass surface.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to prevent the sticking of cells to both glass slide and PDMS surface?
Are you trying to encapsulate cells in single compartments such as droplets? We dont know a lot about your system so it is a bit difficult to answer but you can try to add a stirrer somewhere in your system, perhaps a magnetic stirring at a slow speed so that the cells are not damaged. Or maybe increase the concentration of the Pluronic to match the density of the cells if it is not already the case.
Add some tween 20 (0.05%) to your cell solution.
As Julia said - it would be helpful to know more about your chip design. Also your flow rate and how you are achieving said flow... (syringe pump?)
I have used 10 ul/min flow rate in a 1ul volume device and have never had cells stick to glass for both large (epithelial) and small (leukocyte) cells. Using harvard apparatus syringe pumps
I would suggest pretrating the microfluidic channel by flowing Aquapel through it for 5-10s. This makes channels hydrophobic.
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Histology
- Staining