Unidirectional intercellular communication on a microfluidic chip

Cell co-culture serves as a standard method to study intercellular communication. However, random diffusion of signal molecules during co-culture may arouse crosstalk among different types of cells and hide directive signal-target responses. Here, a microfluidic chip is proposed to study unidirectional intercellular communication by spatially controlling the flow of the signal molecules. The chip contains two separated chambers connected by two channels where the culture media flows oppositely. A zigzag signal-blocking channel is designed to study the function of a specific signal. The chip is applied to study the unidirectional communication between tumor cells and stromal cells. It shows that the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (a marker of cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF)) of both MRC-5 fibroblasts and mesenchymal stem cells can be up-regulated only by the secreta from invasive MDA-MB-231 cells, but not from non-invasive MCF-7 cells. The proliferation of the tumor cells can be improved by the stromal cells. Moreover, transforming growth factor beta 1 is found as one of the main factors for CAF transformation via the signal-blocking function. The chip achieves unidirectional cell communication along X-axis, signal concentration gradient along Y-axis and 3D cell culture along Z-axis, which provides a useful tool for cell communication studies.