Fabrication of a pneumatically driven single-cell trap

This paper describes the creation of a pneumatically driven single-cell trap and its ability to trap a live single cell. The cell-trap device consists of a pneumatic vibrator array and a trap chamber used to trap single cells. The entire structure was manufactured with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). External compressed air was used to actuate the pneumatic vibrators. The magnitude and frequency of the pneumatic force were controlled by programmable electromagnetic valves. The live cell in the trap chamber was manipulated using the velocity field of the cell media induced by deformation of the vibrator diaphragm. The cell was successfully trapped in the central equilibrium region of the device, at which point the axial velocity fields generated by the vibrators were minimized. The intracellular calcium response of a single cell induced by mechanical stimuli during cell trapping was measured to verify the effectiveness of the pneumatic cell trap as a stress-free trapping method. The results showed that the internal signaling in the cell was sensitive to the extracellular physical environment. Since the measured intensity of the intracellular calcium of the single cell was very minor, the pneumatic cell trap described in this paper was categorized as a harmless trapping method. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.