Abstract
Live imaging of cellular dynamics in confined microspaces is crucial for understanding biological processes such as cancer cell invasion, immune response, and neuronal development. However, glass or polydimethylsiloxane-based microfluidic chips that provide such microspaces suffer from image distortion due to refractive index mismatch with water-based culture media, making high-resolution imaging challenging. To address this problem, we have developed a technique to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) microfluidic chips using the fluoropolymer cyclized transparent optical polymer (CYTOP) with a refractive index (~1.34) similar to that of water (~1.33). Our fabrication approach combines two-photon polymerization of SU-8 with mold processing, enabling the creation of defect-free, flexible 3D structures with sub-micrometer precision. The fabricated CYTOP microfluidic chips enabled super-resolution imaging of cancer cells in the microchannels, clearly visualizing the rupture and repair of the nuclear envelope and the progression of proliferation during migration. Such super-resolution imaging ability in microspaces expands opportunities for investigating biological processes beyond cancer cell migration.
Citation: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Optics, Photonics, & Lasers. USG Proc J 1(Suppl 8): S152-S163.
