The identification and characterization, at the cellular level, of cytokine productions present a high interest for both fundamental research and clinical studies. However, the majority of techniques currently available (ELISA, ELISpot, flow cytometry, etc.) have several shortcomings including, notably, the assessment of several cytokines in relation to individual secreting cells and the monitoring of living cell responses for a long incubation time. In the present work, we describe a system composed of a microfluidic platform coupled with an antibody microarray chip for continuous SPR imaging and immunofluorescence analysis of cytokines (IL-2 and IFN-γ) secreted by T-Lymphocytes, specifically, and stably captured on the biochip under flow upon continued long-term on-chip culture (more than 24 h).
Keywords: Cytokine; PDMS; SPR imaging; T-Lymphocytes; antibody; biochip; microfluidics; self-assembled monolayers.