The use of organ-on-a-chip (OOC) devices is a promising alternative to existing cell-based assays and animal testing in drug discovery. A rapid prototyping method with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is widely used for developing OOC devices. However, because PDMS tends to absorb small hydrophobic molecules, the loss of test compounds in cell-based assays and increases in background fluorescence during observation often lead to biased results in cell-based assays. To address this issue, we have fabricated a glass-based OOC device and characterized the medium flow and molecular absorption properties in comparison with PDMS-based devices. Consequently, we revealed that the glass device generated a stable medium flow, restricted the absorption of small hydrophobic molecules, and showed enhanced cell adhesiveness. This glass device is expected to be applicable to precise cell-based assays to evaluate small hydrophobic molecules, for which PDMS devices cannot be applied because of their absorption of small hydrophobic molecules.
Keywords: Absorption; Cell culture; Cell-based assay; Flow control; Glass; Microfluidics; Organ-on-a-chip; Polydimethylsiloxane.
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