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Micromachines
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Micro/Nano Devices in Biological Medicine
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Micro/Nano Devices in Biological Medicine

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "B：Biology and Biomedicine".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 March 2020) | Viewed by 12140

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Satoshi Uchida

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Innovation Center of NanoMedicine, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 210-0821, Japan
2. Department of Bioengineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Interests: gene therapy; messenger RNA therapeutics; polymeric micelle; drug delivery system; biomaterial; RNA nanotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Various medical devices have been developed, especially in the past hundred years, e.g., artificial heart–lung machine, and computed tomography, which tremendously improved the quality of medical care. In recent decades, researchers have started to focus on the development of devices that function at nano- or micro-scales for advanced therapy and diagnosis. Some of the devices are based on technologies such as microfluidics and biosensors, and intend to work outside patients’ body for diagnosis, while vigorous efforts are being devoted to making such diagnostic devices wearable or implantable. Other devices assist the functioning of therapeutic and diagnostic agents inside patients’ bodies. For example, drug delivery systems allow specific targeting and the control of the functioning of these agents in specific organs, cells, and organelles, by using nano- or micro-particles or microneedles, to maximize their effects and minimize adverse outcomes. Nucleotide-based therapeutics, including DNA, messenger RNA, small interference RNA, and anti-sense oligonucleotide, often require nano- or micro-devices to prevent their degradation before reaching target sites and facilitate their functioning inside cells. This Special Issue welcomes your contribution in these fields at various stages, from the basic technological development of device components to the biomedical application of the devices, in the form of communications, original articles, and reviews.

Prof. Satoshi Uchida
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Microfluidics
  • Biosensors
  • Drug delivery systems
  • Non-viral gene delivery
  • Nucleotide therapeutics
  • Biomaterials
  • Microneedle
  • Controlled release

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 1405 KiB  
Communication
mRNA as a Tool for Gene Transfection in 3D Cell Culture for Future Regenerative Therapy
by Satoshi Uchida, Kayoko Yanagihara, Akitsugu Matsui, Kazunori Kataoka and Keiji Itaka
Micromachines 2020, 11(4), 426; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11040426 - 18 Apr 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 5021
Abstract
A combination of three-dimensional (3D) cell culturing and non-viral gene transfection is promising in improving outcomes of cell transplantation therapy. Herein, gene transfection profiles in 3D cell culture were compared between plasmid DNA (pDNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) introduction, using mesenchymal stem cell [...] Read more.
A combination of three-dimensional (3D) cell culturing and non-viral gene transfection is promising in improving outcomes of cell transplantation therapy. Herein, gene transfection profiles in 3D cell culture were compared between plasmid DNA (pDNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) introduction, using mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) 3D spheroids. Green fluorescence protein (GFP) mRNA induced GFP protein expression in 77% of the cells in the spheroids, whereas only 34% of the cells became GFP positive following pDNA introduction. In mechanistic analyses, most of the cells in MSC spheroids were non-dividing, and pDNA failed to induce GFP expression in most of the non-dividing cells. In contrast, both dividing and non-dividing cells became GFP-positive after mRNA introduction, which led to a high overall percentage of GFP-positive cells in the spheroids. Consequently, mRNA encoding an osteogenic factor, runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2), allowed in vitro osteogenic differentiation of MSCs in spheroids more efficiently compared to Runx2 pDNA. Conclusively, mRNA exhibits high potential in gene transfection in 3D cell culture, in which the cell division rate is lower than that in monolayer culture, and the combination of mRNA introduction and 3D cell culture is a promising approach to improve outcomes of cell transplantation in future regenerative therapy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro/Nano Devices in Biological Medicine)
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17 pages, 2611 KiB  
Article
A Micro-Optic Stalk (μOS) System to Model the Collective Migration of Retinal Neuroblasts
by Stephanie Zhang, Miles Markey, Caroline D. Pena, Tadmiri Venkatesh and Maribel Vazquez
Micromachines 2020, 11(4), 363; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11040363 - 31 Mar 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3237
Abstract
Contemporary regenerative therapies have introduced stem-like cells to replace damaged neurons in the visual system by recapitulating critical processes of eye development. The collective migration of neural stem cells is fundamental to retinogenesis and has been exceptionally well-studied using the fruit fly model [...] Read more.
Contemporary regenerative therapies have introduced stem-like cells to replace damaged neurons in the visual system by recapitulating critical processes of eye development. The collective migration of neural stem cells is fundamental to retinogenesis and has been exceptionally well-studied using the fruit fly model of Drosophila Melanogaster. However, the migratory behavior of its retinal neuroblasts (RNBs) has been surprisingly understudied, despite being critical to retinal development in this invertebrate model. The current project developed a new microfluidic system to examine the collective migration of RNBs extracted from the developing visual system of Drosophila as a model for the collective motile processes of replacement neural stem cells. The system scales with the microstructure of the Drosophila optic stalk, which is a pre-cursor to the optic nerve, to produce signaling fields spatially comparable to in vivo RNB stimuli. Experiments used the micro-optic stalk system, or μOS, to demonstrate the preferred sizing and directional migration of collective, motile RNB groups in response to changes in exogenous concentrations of fibroblast growth factor (FGF), which is a key factor in development. Our data highlight the importance of cell-to-cell contacts in enabling cell cohesion during collective RNB migration and point to the unexplored synergy of invertebrate cell study and microfluidic platforms to advance regenerative strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro/Nano Devices in Biological Medicine)
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10 pages, 3668 KiB  
Article
Optimization of Islet Microencapsulation with Thin Polymer Membranes for Long-Term Stability
by Shota Toda, Artin Fattah, Kenta Asawa, Naoko Nakamura, Kristina N. Ekdahl, Bo Nilsson and Yuji Teramura
Micromachines 2019, 10(11), 755; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10110755 - 6 Nov 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3531
Abstract
Microencapsulation of islets can protect against immune reactions from the host immune system after transplantation. However, sufficient numbers of islets cannot be transplanted due to the increase of the size and total volume. Therefore, thin and stable polymer membranes are required for the [...] Read more.
Microencapsulation of islets can protect against immune reactions from the host immune system after transplantation. However, sufficient numbers of islets cannot be transplanted due to the increase of the size and total volume. Therefore, thin and stable polymer membranes are required for the microencapsulation. Here, we undertook the cell microencapsulation using poly(ethylene glycol)-conjugated phospholipid (PEG-lipid) and layer-by-layer membrane of multiple-arm PEG. In order to examine the membrane stability, we used different molecular weights of 4-arm PEG (10k, 20k and 40k)-Mal to examine the influence on the polymer membrane stability. We found that the polymer membrane made of 4-arm PEG(40k)-Mal showed the highest stability on the cell surface. Also, the polymer membrane did not disturb the insulin secretion from beta cells. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro/Nano Devices in Biological Medicine)
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