Studies On Microfluidic Concentration Gradient Generator And Its Application For Drug-induced Tumour Cell Apoptosis

Simulating the concentration gradient environment in vitro is very important, and mi-crofluidics provides a new technique for the research of new concentration gradient generators. In the present work, a new kind of microfluidic concentration chip, which can generate a series of precise, stable, wide-range, easy controlled and easy quantified concentration gradients, was developed. And then, drug-induced cancer cell apoptosis in this microfluidic chip was studied.In Chapter1, the development of microfluidic concentration gradient generators and their application in cell analysis, especially in drug-induced apoptosis, were reviewed. In the end,the goal and the consideration of our work were given.In Chapter2, a new plate-shaped microfluidic concentration gradient generator was de-signed. The different streams in the microchannels were mixed based on laminar flow and dif-fusion effects.These streams were dispensed to the next meandering channels in different pro-portion, and completely mixed in these channels. In the multi-level network channels, the streams were repeatedly seperated and mixed in a stepwise manner, and the concentration gra-dient was formed.In our experiment, we optimized the structure of microfluidic chip for expanding the dif-fusion area. Next, the effects of flow rate on the distribution of concentration gradient were studied. The fluorescence quantitative method was used to analyze the distribution of fluores-cence dye in the microfluidic chip, and the result is in accordance with the theoretical value. With the flow rate of1.0μL/min, the concentration gradient, which characterized precise, wide-range, easy controlled and easy quantified, could be generated in the concentration gra-dient chip. In Chapter3, hight-throughput drug-induced apoptosis was realized in the microfluidic concentration gradient chip designed in this work. The apoptosis of human cervical cancer line induced respectively by arsenic trioxide and cisplatin were investigated, and the results showed the dose dependence and time dependence of the Hela cell apoptosis.In the last chapter, a summary and perspective were given for this microfluidic concentra-tion gradient generator.