Microfabricated tuneable and transferable porous PDMS membranes for Organs-on-Chips

Journal article (2018)

Authors

W.F. Quiros Solano Electronic Components, Technology and Materials - EEMCS
N. Gaio Electronic Components, Technology and Materials - EEMCS , BIOND Solutions B.V.
A van den Berg University of Twente
R. Dekker Electronic Components, Technology and Materials - EEMCS , Philips Research
Pasqualina M Sarro Electronic Components, Technology and Materials - EEMCS
O.M.J.A. Stassen Eindhoven University of Technology
Y.B. Arik University of Twente
C. Silvestri BIOND Solutions B.V.
N.C.A. Van Engeland Eindhoven University of Technology, Åbo Akademi University
A. Van der Meer University of Twente
R. Passier University of Twente
C.M. Sahlgren Åbo Akademi University, Eindhoven University of Technology
C. V.C. Bouten Eindhoven University of Technology
Research Group
Electronic Components, Technology and Materials (EEMCS) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2018 W.F. Quiros Solano, N. Gaio, O.M.J.A. Stassen, Y.B. Arik, C. Silvestri, N.C.A. Van Engeland, A. Van der Meer, R. Passier, C.M. Sahlgren, C.V.C. Bouten, A. van den Berg, R. Dekker, Pasqualina M Sarro
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-31912-6
More Info
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Published Date

2018

Language

English

Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Department

Microelectronics

Research Group

Electronic Components, Technology and Materials

Abstract

We present a novel and highly reproducible process to fabricate transferable porous PDMS membranes for PDMS-based Organs-on-Chips (OOCs) using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication technologies. Porous PDMS membranes with pore sizes down to 2.0 μm in diameter and a wide porosity range (2–65%) can be fabricated. To overcome issues normally faced when using replica moulding and extend the applicability to most OOCs and improve their scalability and reproducibility, the process includes a sacrificial layer to easily transfer the membranes from a silicon carrier to any PDMS-based OOC. The highly reliable fabrication and transfer method does not need of manual handling to define the pore features (size, distribution), allowing very thin (<10 μm) functional membranes to be transferred at chip level with a high success rate (85%). The viability of cell culturing on the porous membranes was assessed by culturing two different cell types on transferred membranes in two different OOCs. Human umbilical endothelial cells (HUVEC) and MDA-MB-231 (MDA) cells were successfully cultured confirming the viability of cell culturing and the biocompatibility of the membranes. The results demonstrate the potential of controlling the porous membrane features to study cell mechanisms such as transmigrations, monolayer formation, and barrier function. The high control over the membrane characteristics might consequently allow to intentionally trigger or prevent certain cellular responses or mechanisms when studying human physiology and pathology using OOCs.