Beschreibung:
Understanding cell migration is a key step in unraveling many physiological phenomenaand predicting several pathologies, such as cancer metastasis. In particular, confinement has beenproven to be a key factor in the cellular migration strategy choice. As our insight in the field improves,new tools are needed in order to empower biologists’ analysis capabilities. In this framework,microfluidic devices have been used to engineer the mechanical and spatial stimuli and to investigatecellular migration response in a more controlled way. In this work, we will review the existingtechnologies employed in the realization of microfluidic cellular migration assays, namely the softlithography of PDMS and hydrogels and femtosecond laser micromachining. We will give anoverview of the state of the art of these devices, focusing on the different geometrical configurationsthat have been exploited to study specific aspects of cellular migration. Our scope is to highlight theadvantages and possibilities given by each approach and to envisage the future developments inin vitro migration studies under spatial confinement in microfluidic devices.