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Electric-Field-Induced Neural Precursor Cell Differentiation in Microfluidic Devices.

Physiological electric fields (EF) play vital roles in cell migration, differentiation, division, and death. This paper describes a microfluidic cell culture system that was used for a long-term cell differentiation study using microscopy. The microfluidic system consists of the following major components: an optically transparent electrotactic chip, a transparent indium-tin-oxide (ITO) heater, a culture media-filling pump, an electrical power supply, a high-frequency power amplifier, an EF multiplexer, a programmable X-Y-Z motorized stage, and an inverted phase-contrast microscope equipped with a digital camera. The microfluidic system is beneficial in simplifying the overall experimental setup and, in turn, the reagent and sample consumption. This work involves the differentiation of neural stem and progenitor cells (NPCs) induced by direct current (DC) pulse stimulation. In the stem cell maintenance medium, the mouse NPCs (mNPCs) differentiated into neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes after the DC pulse stimulation. The results suggest that simple DC pulse treatment could control the fate of mNPCs and could be used to develop therapeutic strategies for nervous system disorders. The system can be used for cell culture in multiple channels, for long-term EF stimulation, for cell morphological observation, and for automatic time-lapse image acquisition. This microfluidic system not only shortens the required experimental time, but also increases the accuracy of control on the microenvironment.