Issue 17, 2019

Magnetic microboats for floating, stiffness tunable, air–liquid interface epithelial cultures

Abstract

To study respiratory diseases, in vitro airway epithelial models are commonly implemented by culturing airway cells on a porous surface at an air–liquid interface (ALI). However, these surfaces are often supraphysiologically stiff, which is known to affect the organization, maturation, and responses of cells to potential therapies in other biological culture models. While it is possible to culture cells on soft hydrogel substrates at an air–liquid interface, these techniques are challenging to implement particularly in high-throughput applications which require robust and repetitive material handling procedures. To address these two limitations and characterize epithelial cultures on substrates of varying stiffness at the ALI, we developed a novel “lung-on-a-boat”, in which stiffness-tuneable hydrogels are integrated into the bottoms of polymeric microstructures, which normally float at the air–liquid interface. An embedded magnetic material can be used to sink the boat on demand when a magnetic field is applied, enabling reliable transition between submerged and ALI culture. In this work, we prototype a functional ALI microboat platform, with integrated stiffness-tunable polyacrylamide hydrogel surfaces, and validate the use of this technology with a model epithelial cell line. We verify sufficient transport through the hydrogel base to maintain cell viability and stimulate cultures, using a model nanoparticle with known toxicity. We then demonstrate significant morphological and functional effects on epithelial barrier formation, suggesting that substrate stiffness is an important parameter to consider in the design of in vitro epithelial ALI models for drug discovery and fundamental research.

Graphical abstract: Magnetic microboats for floating, stiffness tunable, air–liquid interface epithelial cultures

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
21 Ube 2019
Accepted
14 Upu 2019
First published
15 Upu 2019

Lab Chip, 2019,19, 2786-2798

Magnetic microboats for floating, stiffness tunable, air–liquid interface epithelial cultures

A. Chandrasekaran, S. Kouthouridis, W. Lee, N. Lin, Z. Ma, M. J. Turner, J. W. Hanrahan and C. Moraes, Lab Chip, 2019, 19, 2786 DOI: 10.1039/C9LC00267G

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