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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Sep 21.
Published in final edited form as: Lab Chip. 2020 Sep 1;20(18):3310–3321. doi: 10.1039/d0lc00602e

Figure 4. Low-intensity electric fields increase cationic macromolecule transport into the hydrogel.

Figure 4.

(A) Snapshots comparing the transient concentration of the Alexa fluor 594® dye in the hydrogel channel at 0.5 h, 1 h, and 2 h time points under the following conditions: Left: Diffusion only (Top: finite element model result, Bottom: experimental result); Right: Diffusion and electrophoresis at 50 mV electric fields (Top: finite element model result, Bottom: experimental result). (B) Representation of the regions in the cell culture chamber and the hydrogel channel of the device, for the measurement of dye transient concentration (Top: experimental regions, Bottom: computational domain). (C) The graph shows the validation of finite element model results for the dye transient concentration obtained experimentally by measuring average fluorescence intensity in the hydrogel channel under the following conditions: (i) Control (diffusion only), (ii) Diffusion and electrophoresis at 50mV electric fields. (D) Summary of the average fluorescence intensity of Alexa fluor 594® dye at 0.5 h, 1 h, and 2 h time points under the same conditions as C. Graph show an increase (48.12%, n=46, p-value<0.0001) in the average fluorescence intensity of the dye by applying 50 mV of electric potential gradient in the hydrogel microchannel after 2 h.