Evaluation of cytotoxic effect of 5-fluorouracil on human carcinoma cells in microfluidic system

In this paper, we present cytotoxicity tests performed in a microanalytical hybrid system. The microchambers of cell culture were integrated with a concentration gradient generator (CGG), which created five different concentrations of evaluated agent in a single step. 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is one of the most important chemotherapeutic agents for cancer treatment, therefore it was tested in the microsystem. Independent tests of the cytotoxic effect of 5-FU were performed in this microsystem on different cell lines (human lung carcinoma cells – A549 and human colon carcinoma cells – HT-29). We also present the dependence of cell viability at different times of incubation with 5-FU. We proved that 5-FU has a stronger inhibition effect on A549 than on HT-29 cells. Moreover, the results obtained in the microfluidic system were compared with that of a macroscale. It can be concluded that the conditions of cultivation can affect the level of cytotoxicity of drugs, and the microsystem is a good example that could be used in this field of research.