Microfluidics-enabled 96-well perfusion system for high-throughput tissue engineering and long-term all-optical electrophysiology

This work demonstrates a novel high-throughput (HT) microfluidics-enabled uninterrupted perfusion system (HT-UPS) and validates its use with chronic all-optical electrophysiology in human excitable cells. HT-UPS consists of a soft multichannel microfluidic plate cover which could button on a commercial HT 96-well plate. Herein, we demonstrate the manufacturing process of the system and its usages in acute and chronic all-optical electrophysiological studies of human induced pluripotent stem-cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CM) and engineered excitable (Spiking HEK) cells. HT-UPS perfusion maintained functional voltage and calcium responses in iPSC-CM and Spiking HEK cells under spontaneous conditions and under optogenetic pacing. Long-term culture with HT-UPS improved cell viability and optogenetically-tracked calcium responses in Spiking HEK cells. The scalability and simplicity of this design and its compatibility with HT all-optical electrophysiology can empower cell-based assays for personalized medicine using patient-derived cells.