Issue 20, 2012

Cytotoxicity analysis of water disinfection byproducts with a micro-pillar microfluidic device

Abstract

Water disinfection byproducts (DBPs) are a class of chemicals that are produced when chemical disinfectants react with organic materials in untreated water. Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of DBPs have been systematically evaluated to compile a comparative, quantitative database of in vitro mammalian cell toxicity of DBPs. However, one of the most challenging limitations for current DBP cytotoxicity assessment assays is sample availability. Although our current cytotoxicity assay using a 96-well microplate has been designed to reduce sample consumption, further minimization of the size of the test system would allow us to explore various possibilities for point-of-care applications. We have developed a microfluidic device with micro-pillars that shows high uniformity in distribution of cells across all chambers with low cell count. We compare the performance between the 96-well microplate and the microfluidic device by running 72-hour standalone-on-chip cell culture and cytotoxicity analysis experiments, using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and ethanol as model toxic agents, and bromoacetic acid (BAA) as a representative DBP. The results show close agreement between the two systems. The measured LC50 values for the 96-well microplate and the microfluidic device are 1.54% v/v and 1.27% v/v for DMSO, 1.44% v/v and 2.92% v/v for ethanol, and 17.6 μM and 8.20 μM for BAA, respectively. The micro-pillar microfluidic device offers a great reduction in sample consumption while maintaining the accuracy of the cytotoxicity analyses of water disinfection byproducts.

Graphical abstract: Cytotoxicity analysis of water disinfection byproducts with a micro-pillar microfluidic device

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 Apr 2012
Accepted
14 Jun 2012
First published
15 Jun 2012

Lab Chip, 2012,12, 3891-3900

Cytotoxicity analysis of water disinfection byproducts with a micro-pillar microfluidic device

A. Hsiao, Y. Komaki, S. M. Imaad, B. J. Mariñas, M. J. Plewa and G. L. Liu, Lab Chip, 2012, 12, 3891 DOI: 10.1039/C2LC40374A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements