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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Oct 26, 2019; 11(10): 803-816
Published online Oct 26, 2019. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v11.i10.803
Microfluidic three-dimensional cell culture of stem cells for high-throughput analysis
Jeong Ah Kim, Soohyun Hong, Won Jong Rhee
Jeong Ah Kim, Soohyun Hong, Research Center for Bioconvergence Analysis, Korea Basic Science Institute, Cheongju 28119, South Korea
Jeong Ah Kim, Department of Bio-Analytical Science, University of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34113, South Korea
Soohyun Hong, Program in Biomicro System Technology, Korea University, Seoul 02841, South Korea
Won Jong Rhee, Division of Bioengineering, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, South Korea
Won Jong Rhee, Department of Bioengineering and Nano-Bioengineering, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, South Korea
Author contributions: Kim JA and Rhee WJ designed the manuscript; Kim JA collected the related literature and wrote the manuscript; Hong S designed the tables and figures; Kim JA and Rhee WJ revised the manuscript and contributed to the funding support to this work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Won Jong Rhee, PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Bioengineering, Incheon National University, 119 Academy-ro, Incheon 22012, South Korea. wjrhee@inu.ac.kr
Telephone: +82-32-8358299
Received: March 19, 2019
Peer-review started: March 19, 2019
First decision: June 27, 2019
Revised: July 2, 2019
Accepted: July 29, 2019
Article in press: July 29, 2019
Published online: October 26, 2019
Processing time: 217 Days and 19.7 Hours
Abstract

Although the recent advances in stem cell engineering have gained a great deal of attention due to their high potential in clinical research, the applicability of stem cells for preclinical screening in the drug discovery process is still challenging due to difficulties in controlling the stem cell microenvironment and the limited availability of high-throughput systems. Recently, researchers have been actively developing and evaluating three-dimensional (3D) cell culture-based platforms using microfluidic technologies, such as organ-on-a-chip and organoid-on-a-chip platforms, and they have achieved promising breakthroughs in stem cell engineering. In this review, we start with a comprehensive discussion on the importance of microfluidic 3D cell culture techniques in stem cell research and their technical strategies in the field of drug discovery. In a subsequent section, we discuss microfluidic 3D cell culture techniques for high-throughput analysis for use in stem cell research. In addition, some potential and practical applications of organ-on-a-chip or organoid-on-a-chip platforms using stem cells as drug screening and disease models are highlighted.

Keywords: Stem cell; Microfluidic technology; Three-dimensional cell culture; High-throughput screening

Core tip: A recent advance of microfluidic techniques using stem cells for high-throughput assay is described. Induced pluripotent stem cells and the innovative organ-on-a-chip or organoid-on-a-chip have led to progress in in vitro drug screening platforms. We summarized the various examples of microfluidic techniques, including organ-on-a-chip or organoid-on-a-chip using stem cells for high-throughput screening, and discussed the current challenges and future perspectives of microfluidic technologies in stem cell research.