Assay of glioma cell responses to an anticancer drug in a cell-based microfluidic device

摘要

Despite progress in research and treatment, the prognosis for patients with gliomas remains relatively dismal. As such, develop a new in vitro model is fast becoming a necessary step in efforts to improve research on malignant gliomas. Microfluidics, a potentially effective tool, has been increasingly applied in neuroscience and oncology studies. However, gliomas, the most common primary brain tumours, have not yet been treated with this application. In the current study, we developed a glioma-related research method using microfluidics. After successfully culturing rat C6 glioma cells for up to 7 days in a microfluidic device, we monitored cellular responses to the anticancer drug, colchicines, after which we analysed cell viability using propidium iodide (PI) staining. We recorded temporal changes in cell morphology at various concentrations of colchicine using an inverted microscope.rnResults show that the number of injured/dead cancer cells and morphological changes increased relative to the drug's concentration and treatment frequency. These findings will be helpful in developing microfluidic device applications for future research on brain tumour therapy (for malignant gliomas and other types of tumours), for conducting cytotoxicity research in a biomimetic microenvironment, for developing glioma-related anticancer drugs, and for developing glial cell-based biosensors for glioma detection.