Issue 9, 2020

Selective cell propagation via micropatterning of a thermally-activated hydrogel

Abstract

The ability to selectively propagate specific cells is fundamentally important to the development of clonal cell populations. Current methods rely on techniques such as limiting dilution, colony picking, and flow cytometry to transfer single cells into single wells, resulting in workflows that are low-throughput, slowed by propagation kinetics, and susceptible to contamination. Here, we developed a method, called selective laser gelation (SLG), to micropattern hydrogels in cell culture media in order to encapsulate specific cells to selectively arrest their growth. This process relies on the inverse gelation of methylcellulose, which forms a hydrogel when heated rather than cooled. Local heating using an infrared laser enables hydrogel micropatterning, while phase transition hysteresis retains the hydrogel after laser excitation. As a demonstration, we used this approach to selectively propagate transgenic CHO cells with increased antibody productivity. More generally, hydrogel micropatterning provides a simple and non-contact method for selective propagation of cells based on features identified by imaging.

Graphical abstract: Selective cell propagation via micropatterning of a thermally-activated hydrogel

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
13 Dec 2019
Accepted
27 Mar 2020
First published
09 Apr 2020

Lab Chip, 2020,20, 1544-1553

Selective cell propagation via micropatterning of a thermally-activated hydrogel

J. C. Y. Chiu, J. A. Teodoro, J. H. Lee, K. Matthews, S. P. Duffy and H. Ma, Lab Chip, 2020, 20, 1544 DOI: 10.1039/C9LC01230C

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