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Fig. 1 | BMC Cell Biology

Fig. 1

From: An easy-to-build and re-usable microfluidic system for live-cell imaging

Fig. 1

Fabrication of re-usable microfluidic chips using the LSR elastomer. a. The LSR elastomer is easy-to-manipulate, resistant to both stretching (left panel) and folding (right panel). b. Complex patterns can be fabricated using a CO2 laser cutter. A schematic of these patterns is presented in Additional file 4A. c. Microscopy image of a laser-cut elastomer sheet showing the precision of the cutting procedure along the edge of the cut. Bright-field image (20×). Scale bar = 100 μm. d. The narrowest channel that can be obtained with a 50 μm beam CO2 laser cutter is ~ 170 μm wide. A piece of elastomer was placed between 2 liners taken from double-sided adhesive prior to cutting. Bright-field image (10×). Scale bar = 100 μm. e. Microchannels can be generated in elastomer sheets using a razor blade and biopsy puncher. Top panel: comparison of similar channels fabricated using a laser (left) and a razor blade (right). A dye is used for ease of visualization. Bottom panel: the use of a razor blade allows for high quality cuts. Bright-field image (20×). Scale bar = 100 μm. f. Multichannel microfluidic chips. An elastomer chip comprising 2 channels (500 μm wide) separated by 300 μm at the middle section (left panel) was fabricated and intercalated between two glass coverslips. The two channels were injected with either water or Rhodamine B (5 μM) at a constant flow of 20 μl/min, and the fluorescence intensity at the indicated positions (geometric marks) was measured over time (right panel). T = 0 corresponds to 5 min after the start of the perfusion. Data were corrected for the background measured at the entrance of the water channel at T = 0

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