Controllable and Stable Fusion Strategy on Microfluidics

This paper presents a microfluidic device with 200 cell "cage" structures. Based on this microfluidics device, a new simple and stable electrofusion method was developed. Under hydrodynamic force, the cells moved to the desired "cage" cell capture structure and efficiently formed cell pairs (∼80.0 ± 4.6%). Intimate intercellular connectivity was induced by the precise modulation of hypotonic solution substitution and the microstructure, which ensured no cell movement or displacement during the cell electroporation/electrofusion process. It also guaranteed repeated electroporation occurring in the same contact region and provided a stable cell membrane recombination and a cell fusion microenvironment. When the pulse signal was applied, a high fusion efficiency of ∼88.3 ± 0.6% was demonstrated on the microfluidic device.