Electroformation of Guvs on Microchip with Coplanar Microelectrodes

Recently, microfluidic chip with coplanar microelectrodes is generally used in cell electrofusion and electroporation, it is also more and more popular in the electroformation of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs). Higher yield and more uniform size distribution of GUVs can be formed between coplanar microelectrodes than those on conventional devices.

         In this study, microchips with planar-comb teeth (PCT), symmetrical comb teeth (SCT), and interdigital comb teeth (ICT) coplanar microelectrodes are used to carry out electroformation of GUVs to compare the impact of different configurations. COMSOL Multiphysics software is used to simulate distributions of the electric field and electroosmotic flow (EOF). Horizontal and vertical electroformation chamber are also simulated. Simulation results show that the electric field and EOF distribution of coplanar microelectrodes are quite different from the traditional 3D chips. In addition, ICT gets better EOF distribution than PCT and SCT.

         On-chip experiments show that high yield and uniform size distribution of GUVs can be achieved on these new chips as existing devices based on coplanar microelectrodes. Moreover, the size distribution of GUVs is narrowed from several to hundreds of microns (in traditional methods) to several to several ten of microns. As the simulation results proved, lipid vesicles on a microchip with ICT get a more uniform size distribution.