The formation of an anti-restenotic/anti-thrombotic surface by immobilization of nitric oxide synthase on a metallic carrier.

Coronary stenosis due to atherosclerosis, the primary cause of coronary artery disease, is generally treated by balloon dilatation and stent implantation, which can result in damage to the endothelial lining of blood vessels. This leads to the restenosis of the lumen as a consequence of migration and proliferation of smooth muscle cells (SMCs). Nitric oxide (NO), which is produced and secreted by vascular endothelial cells (ECs), is a central anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic player in the vasculature.

Design of well and groove microchannel bioreactors for cell culture.

Microfluidic bioreactors have been shown valuable for various cellular applications. The use of micro-wells/grooves bioreactors, in which micro-topographical features are used to protect sensitive cells from the detrimental effects of fluidic shear stress, is a promising approach to culture sensitive cells in these perfusion microsystems. However, such devices exhibit substantially different fluid dynamics and mass transport characteristics compared to conventional planar microchannel reactors.

Periodic "flow-stop" perfusion microchannel bioreactors for mammalian and human embryonic stem cell long-term culture.

The present study examines the use of automated periodic "flow-stop" perfusion systems for long-term culture of mammalian cells in a microchannel bioreactor. The method is used to culture Human Foreskin Fibroblasts (HFF) and Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) for long periods of time (>7 d) in a microchannel (height 100 mum). Design parameters, mass transport and shear stress issues are theoretically examined via numerical simulations.

Tunable nonlinear viscoelastic "focusing" in a microfluidic device.

In this Letter we describe a novel method for tunable viscoelastic focusing of particles flowing in a microchannel. It is proposed that some elasticity, inherently present in dilute polymer solutions, may be responsible for highly nonuniform spatial distribution of flowing particles across the channel cross section, yielding their "focusing" in the midplane of the channel. A theory based on scaling arguments is presented to explain the lateral migration and is found to be in a very good agreement with the experimental observations.

A parametric study of human fibroblasts culture in a microchannel bioreactor.

The culture of cells in a microbioreactor can be highly beneficial for cell biology studies and tissue engineering applications. The present work provides new insights into the relationship between cell growth, cell morphology, perfusion rate, and design parameters in microchannel bioreactors. We demonstrate the long-term culture of mammalian (human foreskin fibroblasts, HFF) cells in a microbioreactor under constant perfusion in a straightforward simple manner.