Figure 7
Lifespan measured in the NemaLife device is similar to that animals reared on agar plates: (a) Lifespan of wild type C. elegans evaluated on agar plates and in the microfluidic pillar device. Thin solid lines represent independent trials and the thick solid line represents the combined lifespan of the trials. Lifespan evaluated in microfluidic device is consistent with the agar plate assay (p = 0.11 for trial-1; p = 0.13 for trial-2 and p = 0.22 for trial-3, log rank test) at 20 °C. Sample size in agar/microfluidic device—trial-1: 109/81; trial-2: 159/135; and trial-3: 70/112. (b) Lifespan of a transgenic strain TJ356 with a Pdaf-16::GFP stress reporter on agar plates and in the microfluidic device (p = 0.16, log rank test). Sample size is 71/112 (agar/microfluidic device) at 20 °C. N = 2 trials, data is shown for one trial. (c) Fluorescent imaging of DAF-16::GFP nuclear localization of live worm in the microfluidic device. (i) no sign of accumulation in a day 3 (from hatching) when freshly loaded into the device from agar plate at 20 °C, (ii) and (iii) are images of 8-day old animal (from hatching) on agar plate and in microfluidic device at 20 °C respectively (Insets show zoomed-in fluorescence images), and (iv) number of visible puncta in animals cultured in agar plate (n = 5, day 8 animals) and in NemaLife chip (n = 10, day 8 animals) (p = 0.65, unpaired t test).
