A microfluidic device integrated with a stretchable microporous membrane controlled by electro-conjugate fluid.

Microfluidic devices that can apply stretch stimulation to cells to mimic the in vivo environment of organs have attracted significant attention as an alternative to animal testing in drug discovery screening. However, those devices reported in previous papers were driven by bulky fluid power systems composed of large external pumps and long tubing systems, which occupy much larger space than the main chip-based device itself and limit the number of simultaneous sample processing. Therefore, it is necessary to mount pressure sources on a single chip for miniaturizing the entire system. In this study, we propose to develop and mount MEMS-fabricated micropumps utilizing the strong flow of electro-conjugated fluid (ECF) into the microfluidic devices to stretch a microporous membrane, on which cultured cells can be simulated in various applications. The proposed microfluidic device is successfully fabricated, and its characteristics are investigated experimentally. The experimental results show that the device can stretch the microporous membrane with the strain (5–15%) at a frequency (0.2 Hz) similar to the organs' in vivo environment, demonstrating the feasibility of making the drug discovery screening efficient and effective. [Display omitted] • We propose a new type of microfluidic device which can stretch the microporous membrane by controlling the DC voltage. • Our embedded micropump can replace the vacuum pump in a conventional system to mechanically stimulate the cells on a chip. • The microfluidic device changes the strain of the membrane by the negative pressure of our embedded micropumps. • The periodic stretching and contracting motion (11% strain, 0.2 Hz) to mimic the living organ is successfully realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]