Microfluidic Technology in Vascular Research

Meer van der, A.D. and Poot, A.A. and Duits, M.H.G. and Feijen, J. and Vermes, I. (2009) Microfluidic Technology in Vascular Research. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, 2009 (823148). ISSN 1110-7243

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Abstract:	Vascular cell biology is an area of research with great biomedical relevance. Vascular dysfunction is involved in major diseases such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, and cancer. However, when studying vascular cell biology in the laboratory, it is difficult to mimic the dynamic, three-dimensional microenvironment that is found in vivo. Microfluidic technology offers unique possibilities to overcome this difficulty. In this review, an overview of the recent applications of microfluidic technology in the field of vascular biological research will be given. Examples of how microfluidics can be used to generate shear stresses, growth factor gradients, cocultures, and migration assays will be provided. The use of microfluidic devices in studying three-dimensional models of vascular tissue will be discussed. It is concluded that microfluidic technology offers great possibilities to systematically study vascular cell biology with setups that more closely mimic the in vivo situation than those that are generated with conventional methods.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© 2009 The Author(s)
Faculty:	Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) Science and Technology (TNW)
Research Group:	Biomedical and Environmental Sensor systems (BIOS) Biomaterials Science and Technology (BST) Physics of Complex Fluids (PCF) Polymer Chemistry and BioMaterials (PBM)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/69511
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2009/823148
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