Microfluidic devices for studying zebrafish have the potential to be used for mechanobiology, but have mostly been used for other applications. (A) Tilted device for combined gravitational and hydrodynamic trapping. (i) Photograph and (ii) simulation of hydrodynamic forces for trapping embryos. (iii) Embryos trapped in the device for long-term imaging. (B) Microfluidic device for drug-delivery to embryos and larvae. (i) Schematic of the device with media inlet, drug inlet, gradient generator and seven series of fish tanks. (ii) Photograph of the device. (C) Microfluidic device to apply shear stress to zebrafish larvae. (i) Isometric and top-view schematics of optimized device design (ν = 60 degrees). (ii) Simulation of fluid velocity magnitude in m/s at channel widths of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mm with an inlet and outlet angles ν set to 45 degrees.
Panel (A) reproduced and adapted from reference Akagi, J., Khoshmanesh, K., Evans, B., Hall, C. J., Crosier, K. E., Cooper, J. M., … Wlodkowic, D. (2012). Miniaturized embryo array for automated trapping, immobilization and microperfusion of zebrafish embryos. PLoS ONE, 7(5), 12–15. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036630 with permission from PloS ONE under the CC BY license; Panel (B) reproduced and adapted from Li, Y., Yang, F., Chen, Z., Shi, L., Zhang, B., Pan, J., … Yang, H. (2014). Zebrafish on a chip: A novel platform for real-time monitoring of drug-induced developmental toxicity. PLoS ONE, 9(4), e94792. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0094792 with permission from PloS ONE under the CC BY license; Panel (C) reproduced and adapted from reference Kwon, H.-J., Xu, Y., Solovitz, S. A., Xue, W., Dimitrov, A. G., Coffin, A. B., & Xu, J. (2014). Design of a microfluidic device with a non-traditional flow profile for on-chip damage to zebrafish sensory cells. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 24(1), 017001. http://stacks.iop.org/0960-1317/24/i=1/a=017001?key=crossref. 898bd18771a566d89de4176cbca5c https://doi.org/10.1088/0960-1317/24/1/017001 with permission from IOP publishing.