Figure 5.

Confocal stacks images of hydrogel-encapsulated astrocytes after 3 weeks of different drug delivery profiles from the dual-layered microfluidic chip system. A) A 3D reconstruction image of optimized 3D astrocyte models with DAPI staining (blue) for nuclei and Cell Mask 649 (red) for cell structure at week 1. Chronic study samples with: B) no infusions (negative control); C) an initial DEX infusion and repeated DEX infusions; D) an initial IL-4 infusion only; E) an initial DEX infusion and repeated IL-4 infusions; F) an initial IL-4 infusion and repeated IL-4 infusions; G) Pro-inflammatory marker TNF-α release for each profile at week 1 and 3 (* P < 0.05). H) Pro-inflammatory marker IL-6 release for each profile at week 1 and 3 (* P < 0.05).