Three-dimensional (3D) printing has recently emerged as a cost-effective alternative for the rapid prototyping of microfluidic devices. The feature resolution of 3D printing is particularly well suited for the manufacturing of continuous flow cell culture platforms. Poor cell adhesion or material-induced cell death may, however, limit the introduction of new materials to microfluidic cell culture. In this work, we characterized four commercially available materials commonly used in stereolithography-based 3D printing with respect to long-term (2-month) cell survival on native 3D printed surfaces. Cell proliferation rate, along with material-induced effects on apoptosis and cell survival, were examined in mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Additionally, the feasibility of Dental SG (material with the most favored properties) for culturing of human hepatocytes and human-induced pluripotent stem cells was evaluated. The strength of cell adhesion to Dental SG was further examined over a shear force gradient of 1-89 dyne/cm² by using a custom-designed microfluidic shear force assay incorporating a 3D printed, tilted and tapered microchannel sealed with a polydimethylsiloxane lid. According to our results, autoclavation of the devices prior to cell seeding played the most important role in facilitating long-term cell survival on the native 3D printed surfaces with the shear force threshold in the range of 3-8 dyne/cm².

Background. Wood rotting white-rot and litter-decomposing basidiomycetes form a huge reservoir of oxidative enzymes, needed for applications in the pulp and paper and textile industries and for bioremediation. Objective. The aim was (i) to achieve higher throughput in enzyme screening through miniaturization and automatization of the activity assays, and (ii) to discover fungi which produce efficient oxidoreductases for industrial purposes. Methods. Miniaturized activity assays mostly using dyes as substrate were carried out for lignin peroxidase, versatile peroxidase, manganese peroxidase and laccase. Methods were validated and 53 species of basidiomycetes were screened for lignin modifying enzymes when cultivated in liquid mineral, soy, peptone and solid state oat husk medium. Results. Manganese peroxidases were the most common enzymes produced by 96% of the species. They typically had acidic pH optima, although Hyphodontia sp., Pleurotus pulmonarius and Trametes ochracea produced enzymes highly active at pH 7. Versatile peroxidase was produced by 66% of the fungi with efficient production from Phlebia radiata, P. pulmonarius and Galerina marginata. Novel lignin peroxidase producing fungi Cylindrobasidium evolvens and Daedaleopsis septentrionalis were found among the 26% of the species showing here lignin peroxidase production. Laccase was shown in 92% of the species. Several fungi produced laccase active at pH 7, which is noteworthy because usually laccases of white-rot fungi are efficient and relevant for many industrial applications. Conclusion. Automated screening allowed us to monitor many specific enzyme activities and extend the range of assay conditions from relatively small fungal cultivation sample volumes.

Two‐dimensional (2D) cell cultures have been the primary screening tools to predict drug impacts in vitro for decades. However, owing to the lack of tissue‐specific architecture of 2D cultures, secondary screening using three‐dimensional (3D) cell culture models is often necessary. A microfluidic approach that facilitates side‐by‐side 2D and 3D cell culturing in a single microchannel and thus combines the benefits of both set‐ups in drug screening; that is, the uniform spatiotemporal distributions of oxygen, nutrients, and metabolic wastes in 2D, and the tissue‐like architecture, cell–cell, and cell–extracellular matrix interactions only achieved in 3D. The microfluidic platform is made from an organically modified ceramic material, which is inherently biocompatible and supports cell adhesion (2D culture) and metal adhesion (for integration of impedance electrodes to monitor cell proliferation). To induce 3D spheroid formation on another area, a single‐step lithography process is used to fabricate concave microwells, which are made cell‐repellant by nanofunctionalization (i.e., plasma porosification and hydrophobic coating). Thanks to the concave shape of the microwells, the spheroids produced on‐chip can also be released, with the help of microfluidic flow, for further off‐chip characterization after culturing. In this study, the methodology is evaluated for drug cytotoxicity assessment on human hepatocytes.

Tissue oxygen levels are known to be critical to regulation of many cellular processes, including the hepatic metabolism of therapeutic drugs, but its impact is often ignored in in vitro assays. In this study, the material-induced oxygen scavenging property of off-stoichiometric thiol-enes (OSTE) was exploited to create physiologically relevant oxygen concentrations in microfluidic immobilized enzyme reactors (IMERs) incorporating human liver microsomes. This could facilitate rapid screening of, for instance, toxic drug metabolites possibly produced in hypoxic conditions typical for many liver injuries. The mechanism of OSTE-induced oxygen scavenging was examined in depth to enable precise adjustment of the on-chip oxygen concentration with the help of microfluidic flow. The oxygen scavenging rate of OSTE was shown to depend on the type and the amount of the thiol monomer used in the bulk composition, and the surface-to-volume ratio of the chip design, but not on the physical or mechanical properties of the bulk. Our data suggest that oxygen scavenging takes place at the polymer-liquid interface, likely via oxidative reactions of the excess thiol monomers released from the bulk with molecular oxygen. Based on the kinetic constants governing the oxygen scavenging rate in OSTE microchannels, a microfluidic device comprising monolithically integrated oxygen depletion and IMER units was designed and its performance validated with the help of oxygen-dependent metabolism of an antiretroviral drug, zidovudine, which yields a cytotoxic metabolite under hypoxic conditions.