Thread as a low-cost material for microfluidic assays on intact tumor slices

Abstract

In this paper we describe the use of thread as a low-cost material for a microfluidic chemosensitivity assay that uses intact tumor tissue ex vivo. Today, the need for new and effective cancer treatments is greater than ever, but unfortunately, the cost of developing new chemotherapy drugs has never been higher. Implementation of low-cost microfluidic techniques into drug screening devices could potentially mitigate some of the immense cost of drug development. Thread is an ideal material for use in drug screening as it is inexpensive, widely available, and can transport liquid without external pumping hardware, i.e., via capillary action. We have developed an inexpensive microfluidic delivery prototype that uses silk threads to selectively deliver fluids onto subregions of living xenograft tumor slices. Our device can be fabricated completely for less than $0.25 in materials and requires no external equipment to operate. We found that by varying thread materials, we could optimize device characteristics, such as flow rate; we specifically explored the behavior of silk, nylon, cotton, and polyester. The incremental cost of our device is insignificant compared to the tissue culture supplies. The use of thread as a microfluidic material has the potential to produce inexpensive, accessible, and user-friendly devices for drug testing that are especially suited for low-resource settings.