Spatial distribution of laminar flow-assisted dendritic amplification

Abstract

In this paper, we report spatial distribution of laminar flow-assisted dendritic amplification (LFDA) product. LFDA is a recently invented signal amplification method dedicated to biomolecular binding events on microchannel walls. Onto the bound biomolecule, a dendritic structure is constructed by supplying two building blocks from laminar streams produced by a Y-shaped microchannel. In view of the extension of LFDA to simultaneous amplification of multiple binding spots, we have investigated the distribution of the LFDA product across and along the microchannel with the course of time. We fabricated a Y-shaped microchannel with a cross section of 110 µm × 22 µm using poly(dimethylsiloxane). As the LFDA building blocks, FITC-labeled streptavidin and biotinylated anti-streptavidin were injected from the two inlets of the microchannel at a mean flow velocity of 6.2 mm s⁻¹ (after the confluence). Nonspecific adsorption of the building blocks formed the seed layer of LFDA. The progress of LFDA was monitored with a fluorescence microscope up to 10.1 mm of microchannel length. After 5 min or later, the fluorescence intensity profile across the microchannel showed a peak at the center of the channel. With the course of time, the peak height grew exponentially except for slight saturation, but the peak width was almost constant. Along the microchannel, the peak height decreased almost linearly with the increasing logarithm of the distance, and the peak width was broadened in accordance with the 1/3 power law.