Fabrication of Microfluidic Cell Culture Platform for Real‑time Monitoring of Lidocaine Concentration

Abstract

We describe a microfuidic cell culture platform for real-time measurement of drug concentrations during cell cultivation. This is the frst attempt to quantify drug concentrations during cell cultivation in real-time combining ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy with a microfuidic cell culture system in a single microfuidic chip. The microfuidic chip has two specifc micro-chambers, one for spectroscopic measurements and the other for cell culture. NIH/3T3 fbroblast cells were seeded and cultured in the microfuidic chip, and then the local anesthetic lidocaine was applied and its concentration was monitored in real time. The test results showed that lidocaine negatively afected the cell growth. The lidocaine concentra tion was decreased due to its intake by cells for the frst 3 h, after which an equilibrium concentration was reached. This is a simple but innovative method that can observe and analyze the correlation between cells and drugs in real time. The microfuidic system presented here can be a useful tool in various felds such as in cytotoxicity and drug screening studies