Please read Dr. Voronov’s article in Biomicrofluidics titled, “Addressable microfluidics technology for non-sacrificial analysis of biomaterial implants in vivo.“
Tissue regeneration-promoting and drug-eluting biomaterials are commonly implanted into animals as a part of late-stage testing before committing to human trials required by the government. Because the trials are very expensive (e.g., they can cost over a billion U.S. dollars), it is critical for companies to have the best possible characterization of the materials’ safety and efficacy before it goes into a human. However, the conventional approaches to biomaterial evaluation necessitate sacrificial analysis (i.e., euthanizing a different animal for measuring each time point and retrieving the implant for histological analysis), due to the inability to monitor how the host tissues respond to the presence of the material in situ. This is expensive, inaccurate, discontinuous, and unethical. In contrast, our manuscript presents a novel microfluidic platform potentially capable of performing non-disruptive fluid manipulations within the spatial constraints of an 8 mm diameter critical calvarial defect—a “gold standard” model for testing engineered bone tissue scaffolds in living animals. In particular, here, addressable microfluidic plumbing is specifically adapted for the in vivo implantation into a simulated rat’s skull, and is integrated with a combinatorial multiplexer for a better scaling of many time points and/or biological signal measurements. The collected samples (modeled as food dyes for proof of concept) are then transported, stored, and analyzed ex vivo, which adds previously-unavailable ease and flexibility. To read the full article.
Addressable microfluidics technology for non-sacrificial analysis of biomaterial implants in vivo. Nguyen M, Tong A, Volosov M, Madhavarapu S, Freeman J, Voronov R. 2023 Apr 3;17(2):024103. PMID: 37035100 PMCID: PMC10076065 DOI: 10.1063/5.0137932 eCollection 2023 Mar.