A microfluidic sucrose gap device for electrical measurement of gap junction connectivity

A microfluidic device has been designed to electrically measure average intercellular connectivity in a cell monolayer. This proof-of-concept design uses elastomeric microvalves to isolate cells across three microfluidic chambers, creating a direct microscale analog of benchtop sucrose gap physiology rigs. The device operation has been verified for normal rat kidney cells (NRK-49F) using a chemical gap junction blocker, 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate (2-APB). At 410 Hz, the system measured an averaged network impedance magnitude between 730 and 930 kΩ and demonstrated the ability to distinguish a significant increase of 6.51 kΩ and 0.464° due to 2-APB perfusion.