Immune response to IL6 gradient in a diffusion-based microfluidic labchip

Cell migration plays a crucial role in uncovering many physiological phenomena and predicting several pathologies, such as immune cell trafficking, tissue-specific immunological responses, wound healing, cancer metastasis, etc. A controlled approach to cellular migration has been explored through microfluidic devices. In order to create multiple dilutions of interleukin 6, a symmetric microfluidic labchip is well-designed. Eight chambers for cell culture and two for collecting migrated T cells were considered. This research will focus on mimicking immune cell movement or chemotaxis in a diffusion-based microfluidic device with different chemokine concentration gradients. Immune cells co-cultured with fibroblasts migrate in response to different gradients of interleukin 6. Immune cell migration is spatially controlled for 48 h by monitoring immune cell migration time and dose dependency. The microfluidic chip developed in this research aims to study immune cell movement in response to the concentration gradient of chemokine in cancer studies and clinical applications.