Figure 1 | Scientific Reports

Figure 1

From: A microfluidic chip for screening individual cancer cells via eavesdropping on autophagy-inducing crosstalk in the stroma niche

Figure 1

Experimental schemes and microfluidic devices for monitoring multicellular interaction between a single cancer cell and many fibroblasts in the neighbor. (A) In a tumor microenvironment, cancer cells communicate with neighboring fibroblasts. Autophagy induction by paracrine factors can be detected using GFP-LC3 dots quantification. (B) The experimental set-up that allowed the study of the interaction between the single tumor cell and fibroblasts. Fibroblasts were first cultured on the bottom side (B) of the PDMS membrane for 2 h. The PDMS membrane was turned over and attached to a PDMS coated cover-glass. Then, a single tumor cell was trapped into the holes on top side (T) via gravitational forces and agitation. (C) A photograph of the microfabricated biochip system. (D) SEM image of the membrane. The pore diameter is 30 μm (Inlet. Scale bar, 50 μm), and the center-to-center distance between the pores is 310 μm (Scale bar: 500 μm). (E) A 10x microscopic image of fibroblasts neighboring individual MDA cells that were trapped in the hole array (Scale bar: 300 μm). (F) Visualization of autophagy activation in fibroblasts during communication with trapped single MDA cells (Scale bar: 100 μm).

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