Effect of width of microchannel device on behavior of collective cell migration

Cell migration plays a crucial role in the physiological and pathological phenomena in our body such as morphogenesis, wound healing, immune response, and cancer metastasis. Cell migration can be regulated by chemical cues, although negative side effects on cell behavior may potentially be induced due to chemical treatments. Mechanical cues are also known to regulate cell migration behavior, however, how cell migration responds to mechanical cues is still under investigation. Therefore, in this study, we developed a confined PDMS-based microchannel with three different widths of 25 μm, 50 μm and 75 μm to study the effect of the width of the microchannel device on cell migration behavior. After the fabrication of the microchannel device, MDCK cells are introduced in the microchannel device for cell culture experiments. When the cells reached the confluent state, the cell migration behavior is observed using time lapse microcopy for 12 h. As a result, the velocity of cells increased with increasing the width of the microchannel from 9.7 μm/h with 25 μm in width to 26.6 μm/h with 75 μm in width. The morphology of the cells and nuclei were not elongated in the middle regions of the microchannels and the cells were oriented parallel to the long axes of the microchannels near the walls. The information on the cell response inside a confined microchannel device can be useful in developing strategies for tissue engineering and cancer metastasis therapies.