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. 2014 Feb 21;8(1):014109.
doi: 10.1063/1.4866358. eCollection 2014 Jan.

Study of flow behaviors on single-cell manipulation and shear stress reduction in microfluidic chips using computational fluid dynamics simulations

Feng Shen  1 , Xiujun Li  2 , Paul C H Li  3
Affiliations

Study of flow behaviors on single-cell manipulation and shear stress reduction in microfluidic chips using computational fluid dynamics simulations

Feng Shen et al. Biomicrofluidics. .

Abstract

Various single-cell retention structures (SCRSs) were reported for analysis of single cells within microfluidic devices. Undesirable flow behaviors within micro-environments not only influence single-cell manipulation and retention significantly but also lead to cell damage, biochemical heterogeneity among different individual cells (e.g., different cell signaling pathways induced by shear stress). However, the fundamentals in flow behaviors for single-cell manipulation and shear stress reduction, especially comparison of these behaviors in different microstructures, were not fully investigated in previous reports. Herein, flow distribution and induced shear stress in two different single-cell retention structures (SCRS I and SCRS II) were investigated in detail to study their effects on single-cell trapping using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods. The results were successfully verified by experimental results. Comparison between these two SCRS shows that the wasp-waisted configuration of SCRS II has a better performance in trapping and manipulating long cylinder-shaped cardiac myocytes and provides a safer "harbor" for fragile cells to prevent cell damage due to the shear stress induced from strong flows. The simulation results have not only explained flow phenomena observed in experiments but also predict new flow phenomena, providing guidelines for new chip design and optimization, and a better understanding of the cell micro-environment and fundamentals of microfluidic flows in single-cell manipulation and analysis.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic of microfluidic chips with (a) SCRS I in chip V1 and (b) SCRS II in chip V2. The widths of different channels are shown by the figure legends starting with “W” (e.g., W75 μm).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Meshes and details of chip V1 (a) and a half of chip V2 above the symmetry axis (b) using FLUENT 14.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Relationship between N and ZSP (colored by velocity magnitude (m/s)) from CFD simulation.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Wall shear stress along the SCRS I wall with different Ns.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Streamline patterns at different inlet Reynolds numbers (Res) (colored by velocity magnitude (m/s)).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Shear stresses along the SCRS I wall at different inlet Reynolds numbers.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Results of streamline patterns at Re = 0.1612. (a) Simulation result colored by velocity magnitude (m/s). The inset shows flow details around the chamber. (b) Experimental result processed by PTV algorithm.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Influence of Re on streamline patterns colored by velocity magnitude (m/s). (a) Re = 0.00897. (b) Re = 0.0897. (c)Re = 0.7166. (d) Re = 4.485 (e) Re = 8.97. (f) Re = 26.87. (g) Re = 44.785. (h) Re = 89.57. The insets show flow details around SCRS II.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Simulated flow behaviors in the SCRS II at Re = 0.1612 colored by velocity magnitude (m/s). (a) Velocity vector field. (b) Streamline patterns.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Influence of Re on (a) the flow velocity along the axis of symmetry (x) and (b) wall shear stress along the SCRS wall.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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