A microfluidic sucrose gap device for electrical measurement of gap junction connectivity
A microfluidic device has been designed to electrically measure average intercellular connectivity in a cell monolayer. This proof-of-concept design uses elastomeric microvalves to isolate cells across three microfluidic chambers, creating a direct microscale analog of benchtop sucrose gap physiology rigs. The device operation has been verified for normal rat kidney cells (NRK-49F) using a chemical gap junction blocker, 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate (2-APB). At 410 Hz, the system measured an averaged network impedance magnitude between 730 and 930 kΩ and demonstrated the ability to distinguish a significant increase of 6.51 kΩ and 0.464° due to 2-APB perfusion.
Authors
- Juanita Mathews (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1200-4810)
- Joel Dungan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4053-2071)
- Michael Levin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7292-8084)
- Valencia Joyner Koomson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4043-8309)
Institutions
- Tufts University (US)
- Harvard University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Review of Scientific Instruments
- Published
- 2025-02-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0224298
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Connexins and lens biology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.81
Funders
- John Templeton Foundation
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research