Hanging drop array chip for spheroid culture with finger-actuated microfludic medium exchange

Abstract

The hanging drop method has a number of advantages for spheroid culture, but it suffers from medium exchange procedures that depend on tedious and accurate manual pipetting. Here, we present a simple method to operate a microfluidic channels-integrated hanging drop array (HDA) for spheroid culture using finger actuation. Two types of finger-actuated microfluidic pumps, each can draw old medium or replenish fresh medium of the HDA without any external equipment. To verify this concept, BT474 spheroid is cultured in our device for 4 days by exchanging the medium once a day using the finger-actuated pumps.