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On‐Chip Rotation of Caenorhabditis elegans Using Microfluidic Vortices
Author(s) -
Pan Peng,
Laver John D.,
Qin Zhen,
Zhou Yuxiao,
Peng Ran,
Zhao Lijun,
Xie Hui,
Calarco John A.,
Liu Xinyu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced materials technologies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.184
H-Index - 42
ISSN - 2365-709X
DOI - 10.1002/admt.202000575
Subject(s) - microfluidics , caenorhabditis elegans , microscale chemistry , microchannel , confocal , rotation (mathematics) , fluidics , biological system , microfluidic chip , materials science , controllability , microscope , fluorescence microscope , nanotechnology , fluorescence , computer science , optics , biology , physics , artificial intelligence , engineering , biochemistry , mathematics education , mathematics , aerospace engineering , gene
Precise and controllable rotation of small biological samples is essential to many biological and medical applications. This paper reports, an easy‐to‐use microfluidic device to rotate single nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans in a reliable and controllable fashion, which was enabled by on‐chip generation of stable microscale vortices inside a worm‐loaded microchannel by fluidic shear stress. To test the capability of the proposed device, single worms were successfully rotated in continuous and stepwise modes. Using this device, clear visualization of all dopaminergic neurons in the head of a C. elegans was demonstrated by capturing fluorescence images of the worm body at several rotational angles. Multiple perspectives of individual neurons of a multi‐color fluorescent transgenic worm were also obtained at high resolution using laser‐scanning confocal microscopy. The results show that this microfluidic rotation device provides a simple solution to overcoming limitations of confocal microscopy when imaging relatively thick tissue samples such as an adult C. elegans , and is compatible with multiple fluorescent proteins with different spectral properties. With its controllability, precision, and simplicity in fabrication and operation, this microfluidic device has important utility in model organism studies.