Development of a microfluidic device to observe dynamic flow around the villi generated by deformation of small intestinal tissue.

The mucosal immune system in the small intestine is crucial for human health. For the immune response, mutual contact between gut bacteria and intestinal epithelial cells is important because there are unique epithelial cells specialized in gut bacteria sampling on the villi. The travel of gut bacteria to the villi is led by a complex dynamic flow in the small intestine.

Microfluidic Device Using Mouse Small Intestinal Tissue for the Observation of Fluidic Behavior in the Lumen.

The small intestine has the majority of a host's immune cells, and it controls immune responses. Immune responses are induced by a gut bacteria sampling process in the small intestine. The mechanism of immune responses in the small intestine is studied by genomic or histological techniques after in vivo experiments.

Slicing Spheroids in Microfluidic Devices for Morphological and Immunohistochemical Analysis.

Microfluidic devices utilizing spheroids play important roles in in vitro experimental systems to closely simulate morphological and biochemical characteristics of the in vivo tumor microenvironment. For the observation and analysis of the inner structure of spheroids, sectioning is an efficient approach. However, conventional microfluidic devices are difficult for sectioning, and therefore, spheroids inside the microfluidic channels have not been sliced well.