Table 2.

Details of microfluidic devices and their application in the AD research.

Cells/Peptide	Flow Control Device	Flow Surface	Active/Passive	Application	Reference(s)
Axon	NA	Glass	P	Study axonal function	[154]
Neural Progenitor Cell	Osmotic micropump	-	A	Study the neurotoxicity of amyloid beta	[36]
Neuron	Osmotic micropump	Glass	A & P	in vitro brain model, high-throughput drug screening	[143]
Brain Cells	Pneumatically-driven pumps	Polysulfone	P	To provide MPSs for in vitro drug discovery	[175]
Aβ42 Peptide	Precision pump	Glass	A	Aβ (1–42) detection	[168]
Aβ Peptide	Syringe	-	A	-	[176]
Axons	N/A	Glass	P	Study impaired axonal deficit	[156]
Axons	N/A	MEA	P	Investigate axonal signals in developmental stage	[177]
Neurites	Syringe	Glass	A	Study durotactic behavior of cells and neurite growth	[161]
Axons	Gravity/Hydrostatic pressure	PCB/Glass	P	Study axonal physiology and modeling CNS injury	[178]
Soma and Axon	N/A	Glass	P	Compartmentalizing the network structure into interconnected sub-populations	[179]
Hippocampal Neuronal/Glia Cells	Pressure gradient	Glass	P	Probing the functional synaptic connectivity between mixed primary hippocampal co-cultures	[163]
Dendrite	N/A	PDMS	NM	Investigate dendrite-to-nucleus signaling	[170]
Oligodendrocyte	N/A	Glass	P	-	[172]
Drg/Mc3t3-E1	N/A	Glass	NM	Mimicking the in vivo scenario to study the interaction between the peripheral nervous system and bone cells	[160]
Nmj	Pipette	Glass	N/A	Study subcellular microenvironments, NMJ formation, maintenance, and disruption	[162]
Axons	Pipette	Glass	P	Perform drug screening assays	[180]
Dendrites and Somata	Syringe	Glass	A	Manipulate synaptic regions and presynaptic and postsynaptic compartments in vitro	[101]
Glial Cells/Motor Neurons	N/A	Glass	P	Study interactions with glial cells and other skeletal cells in the chamber	[159]
Astrocyte	N/A	acrylic plate	P	AD triculture model showing beta-amyloid aggregation, phosphorylated tau accumulation, and neuroinflammatory activity	[144]
Tau	N/A	Glass	P	Study effects of tau on mitochondrial transport	[181]
(Aβ) Peptides	N/A	Glass	P	Study effects of local Aβ stress on neuronal sub-compartments and networks	[182]
ADAM10	Syringe	N/A	A	ADAM10 biomarker detection in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid	[167]
Tau	N/A	Glass	P	Quantify AD-derived Tau propagation	[147]
Aβ	N/A	Glass	P	Study roles of Aβ on microglial accumulation	[183]
Aβ	Syringe	Overflow microfluidic networks	A	Study cell-to-cell communication, role of astrocytes derived from cortex and hippocampus on neuronal viability	[146]
Axons	-	Glass	-	Study mechanisms of indirect axonal excitotoxicity	[174]
Neurites	Hydrostatic pressure	Glass and Polystyrene	P	Grow neuronal culture	[142]
Cortical Neurons	Pressure difference	Glass	P	Synthesize experimental models emulating pathological states	[173]
Ren-WT/Ren-AD Cells	N/A	Glass	P	Grow 3D human neural cell culture, screen novel drugs capable of passing through the BBB to reach deeper neural tissues	[148]
Protein	N/A	Glass	P	Detect protein aggregation	[184]
Axons	Hydrostatic pressure	Glass or Polystyrene	P	Study localized axon-glia interaction and signaling	[185]
Axons	N/A	Glass	P	Examine axonal trauma in neuronal networks	[166]
Axons-glia	Hydrostatic pressure	Glass	P	Study axon-glia interactions	[186]
Neurites	Syringe	Glass	A	Investigating chemotaxis of neutrophils	[187]

Abbreviations: MPSs, Micro-physiological systems; DRG, Dorsal root ganglion; NMJ, Neuromuscular junction; MEA, Microelectrode arrays.