Intercellular Interaction Studies

Intercellular interaction, including cell–cell and cell–ECM communication, is critical to numerous biology and medical studies, such as understanding of pathogenic mechanism and advance drug development. Many in vitro tools, like Boyden chamber, Petri dishes and co-culture in gels or bioreactors, can be used for intercellular interaction studies, such as differentiation, secretion, and migration. These methods allow simple isolation and control of the microenvironment. But the defects of these traditional methods include lack of physiological relevance and the limit of spatial control, difficulty in study at a single-cell level, and low compatibility with downstream analyses (e.g., protein-protein interactions, RNA-Seq, and ChIP-Seq).

Microfluidics Technology for Intercellular Interaction Studies

Microfluidics-based systems for cell–cell and cell–ECM communication studies at a single-cell level have recently become practical. Intercellular interaction at a single-cell level is valuable in understanding communication pathways and commutating behaviors of special subpopulations of cells. The advantages of the microfluidics-based systems are low reagent consumption, precise reagent manipulation, high throughput, and easy integration of functional components. microfluidics-based systems for intercellular interaction studies at a single-cell level could be classified into 2D (two-dimensional) and 3D (three-dimensional) methods.

• 2D microfluidics-based systems spatially pair two cells to record their communication at an identical surface.

Fig. 1 2D microfluidics-based systems for intercellular interaction study at the single-cell level (Long P., etc. 2021)

• 3-D microfluidic systems recapitulate the cell–ECM and cell–cell interactions for 3D cell culture, biochemical signal study and drug screening

What We Can Do for You

STEMart uses microfluidics technology to conduct comprehensive intercellular interaction studies which include but not limit to:

• Cell Contact Signaling
• Immune Cell Analysis (target searching, cytolysis capability and cytotoxicity)
• Immune-Tumor Interactions
• Cell Microenvironment
• Cell Secretions
• Stem Cell Culture and Differentiation

For more information about our intercellular interaction studies, please contact us.