User:Chengfangyi/New sandbox

1. Introduction
"Microfluidics refers to a set of technologies for the manipulation of small fluid volumes (µL, nL, pL), within artificially fabricated microsystems (Whitesides, 2006). Microfluidic systems enable generic and consistent miniaturization, integration, automation and parallelization of (bio-)chemical processes (Mark et al., 2010). The application of microfluidics to biology and medicine has lead to a diversity of new research directions (Melin and Quake, 2007, Yeo et al., 2011), some of which have had significant impact (Sackmann et al., 2014). Cell culture refers to the maintenance and growth of cells in a controlled laboratory environment. Such in vitro cell culture models are the mainstay of experimental cell biological research. Microfluidic cell culture attempts to develop devices and techniques for culturing, maintaining, analyzing and experimenting with cells in micro-scale volumes (Meyvantsson and Beebe, 2008).

Understanding the interplay between critical cell culture parameters and the microenvironmental conditions created by microfluidic devices will accelerate the development of microfluidic cell culture technology (Sackmann et al., 2014). Some important aspects of microfluidic cell culture systems have previously been reviewed, including the effect of surface modification on cellular behavior (Zhou et al., 2012), cell biology (Paguirigan and Beebe, 2008, Salieb-Beugelaar et al., 2010), cell culture models (Meyvantsson and Beebe, 2008), cellular analysis (Park and Shuler, 2003, Yeo et al., 2011), cellular microenvironment (Meyvantsson and Beebe, 2008, Young and Beebe, 2010), cell secretion (Huang et al., 2011), chemotaxis (Kim and Wu, 2012), apoptosis (Wlodkowic et al., 2011), vascular function (Wong and Chan, 2012), neuroscience in general (Soe et al., 2012), in particular neuron culture (Millet and Gillette, 2012) and development (Millet and Gillette, 2012), single cell resolution metabolomics (Rubakhin et al., 2011), population transcriptomics (Plessy et al., 2013), lab-on-chip platforms (Mark et al., 2010, Ni et al., 2009), large-scale integration and biological automation (Melin and Quake, 2007), micro total analysis systems (Kovarik et al., 2012), drug research (Wu et al., 2010), cellular separations (Bhagat et al., 2010), stem cell biology (Wu et al., 2011), system biology (Breslauer et al., 2006), bioreactors (Pasirayi et al., 2011), three dimensional cell culture (Haycock, 2011), tissue engineering (Inamdar and Borenstein, 2011), and efforts toward organs-on-chip (Huh et al., 2011).

Complementing the aforementioned reviews, the present review is aimed at researchers familiar with conventional/macroscopic cell culture, who are considering microfluidic cell culture for the first time. This review focuses on the practicalities of microfluidic cell culture and some advantages it may hold over macroscopic cell culture, but also the challenges that may accompany the culture of cells using a microfluidic device. Decisive factors are discussed that distinguish macroscopic from microfluidic cell culture. The overall aim is to give the reader a better understanding of the rewards and challenges that microfluidic cell culture can bring."

Here is the introduction for Advantages and challenges of microfluidic cell culture in polydimethylsiloxane devices.