Microfluidic technology provides opportunities to create in vitro models with physiological microenvironment for cell study.Introducing the identified key aspects,including tissue-tissue interfaces,spatiotemporal chemical gradients,and dynamic mechanical forces,of living organs into the microfluidic system,"organs-on-chips"display an unprecedented application potential in a lot of biological fields such as fundamental physiological and pathophysiological research,drug efficacy and toxicity testing,and clinical diagnosis.Here,we review the recent development of organs-on-chips and briefly discuss their future challenges.
We have built an integrated imaging system by combining stimulated emission depletion(STED)microscope and atomic force microscope(AFM).The STED microscope was constructed based on the supercontinuum fiber laser and a super lateral resolution of42 nm was achieved.With this integrated imaging system,morphological features,mechanical parameters and fluorescence super resolution imaging were obtained simultaneously for both nanobeads and fixed cell samples.This new integrated imaging system is expected to obtain comprehensive information at the nanoscale for studies in nanobiology and nanomedicine.
Hydrogen sulfide(H_2S)has been found to be the third most important endogenous gaseous signaling molecule after nitric oxide(NO)and carbonic oxide(CO)and plays crucial roles in living organisms and biological systems.Here we use aggregation-induced emission(AIE)of a small organic molecule(TPE-indo)to detect H_2S in both solution and living cells.TPE-indo can target mitochondria and aggregate to fluoresce,which can serve as a sensor for monitoring H_2S in the mitochondria.We regulate the fluorescence of AIE molecules by tuning the viscosity of the solution to form TPE-indo nanoparticles,constructing a probe for H_2S with good selectivity and high sensitivity.The nucleophilic addition of HS-to the TPE-indo is crucial for the rapid H_2S detection.The imaging and analysis of H_2S in mitochondria of living cells with the probe demonstrate potential biological applications.
Yi ZhangXianhong HuangWenwen LiuGuanxin ZhangDeqing ZhangXingyu Jiang
