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This review explores the significant role of microfluidic technologies in advancing cancer research, focusing on the below key areas: droplet-based microfluidics, organ-on-chip systems, paper-based microfluidics, electrokinetic chips, and microfluidic chips for the study of immune response. Droplet-based microfluidics allows precise manipulation of cells and three-dimensional microtissues, enabling high-throughput experiments that reveal insights into cancer cell migration, invasion, and drug resistance. Organ-on-chip systems replicate human organs to assess drug efficacy and toxicity, particularly in the liver, heart, kidney, gut, lung, and brain. Paper-based microfluidics offers an alternative approach to accomplish rapid diagnostics and cell- and tissue-based bioassays. Electrokinetic microfluidic chips offer precise control over cell positioning and behavior, facilitating drug screening and cellular studies. Immune response studies leverage real-time observation of interactions between immune and cancer cells, supporting the development of immunotherapies. These microfluidic advances are paving the way for personalized cancer treatments while addressing challenges of scalability, cost, and clinical integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer metastasis is the primary cause of high mortality of cancer patients. Enumeration of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the bloodstream is a very important indicator to estimate the therapeutic outcome in various metastatic cancers. The aim of this article is to review recent developments on the CTC isolation technologies in microdevices. Based on the categories of biochemical and biophysical isolation approaches, a literature review and in-depth discussion will be included to provide an overview of this challenging topic. The current excellent developments suggest promising CTC isolation methods in order to establish a precise indicator of the therapeutic outcome of cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) were suggested for treating degenerative osteoarthritis, suppressing inflammatory responses, and repairing damaged soft tissues. Moreover, the ADSCs have the potential to undergo self-renewal and differentiate into bone, tendon, cartilage, and ligament. Recently, investigation of the self-renewal and differentiation of the ADSCs has become an attractive area. In this work, a pneumatic microdevice has been developed to study the gene expression of the ADSCs after the stimulation of multi-axial tensile strain. The ADSCs were cultured on the microdevice and experienced multi-axial tensile strain during a three-day culture course. Self-renewal and differentiation abilities were investigated by mRNA expressions of NANOG, sex determining region Y-box 2 (SOX2), octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (OCT4), sex determining region Y-box9 (SOX9), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ), and runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2). The result showed that the genes related self-renewal were significantly up-regulated after the tensile stimulation. Higher proliferation ratio of the ADSCs was also shown by cell viability assay. The microdevice provides a promising platform for cell-based study under mechanical tensile stimulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has become an attractive topic for soft tissue healing therapy recently. While some clinical reports revealed the effective treatments for knee osteoarthritis, lateral epicondylitis, and rotator cuff tears, other case studies showed that there was no statistically significant healing improvement. The efficacy of the PRP therapy is still unclear clinically. Thus, a significant amount of basic studies should be conducted to optimize the preparation procedure and the platelet concentration of the PRP. In this work, a 3-chamber co-culture device was developed for the PRP study in order to reduce the usage of primary cells and to avoid the PRP gelation effect. The device was a culture, well partitioning into 3 sub-chambers. Tenocytes and PRP could be respectively loaded into the sub-chambers and co-cultured under the interlinked medium. The results showed that a higher platelet number in the PRP could diffuse higher concentration of the growth factors in the medium and induce higher tenocyte proliferation. The 3-chamber co-culture device provides a simple and practical tool for the PRP study. It is potentially applied for optimizing the preparation procedure and platelet concentration of the PRP therapy.