High speed cell patterning by dielectrophoresis and on-chip fabrication of microstructure embedding patterned cells

Constructing different patterns of cells and immobilizing these cells inside certain structures are very important issues for artificial tissue engineering. In this paper, we present methods of forming line pattern of yeast cells by dielectrophoresis (DEP) and immobilizing patterned cells by photo-crosslinkable resin. High speed cell pattering by DEP and on-chip fabrication of microstructure which contains patterned yeast cells is demonstrated. In order to applying DEP force for forming cell pattern, several novel microelectrodes are fabricated by Indium Tin Oxides (ITO) which are coated on the glass. The two kinds of DEP responses of yeast cell (W303) and the precise experimental parameters of them are confirmed. Based on negative DEP phenomenon, cell traps generated by microelectrode are demonstrated. Position control and transportation of yeast cells is performed by using cell traps. Besides, a cell trap matrix is fabricated and high speed cell pattering is performed. The experimental results show that the cell line patterns which contain hundreds of yeast cells can be formed by DEP within 1 second. The on-chip fabrication for arbitrary shapes of microstructures based on Poly Ethylene Glycol Diacrylate (PEG-DA) is reported. With the cell patterning by DEP and immobilizing by on-chip fabrication, microstructure which contains 3 lines of yeast cells is fabricated in the microfluidic channel, inside PEG-DA and NaCl solution.