Advances in Microfluidic Cell Culture Systems for Studying Angiogenesis

Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels in the vasculature, is a major research topic in biology with implications in development, cancer, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Although much knowledge has been acquired over many decades through application of various angiogenesis assays, these methods have various drawbacks that limit their overall utility. Given the importance of angiogenesis in our understanding of numerous biological processes and its potential as a therapeutic target in cancer and other diseases, there is need to develop useful tools with improved physiological relevance, accessibility, robustness, and throughput over existing assays. Recent developments in microfluidics have demonstrated enormous potential of microscale cell culture systems for biology studies, especially angiogenesis. This area is advancing rapidly, and it is important to remain up to date with the state of the art in technology and evaluate its current and future impact on angiogenesis research. This review examines the latest advances in microfluidic angiogenesis systems. Design and methodology of microscale systems are discussed, and biological insights obtained from the systems are examined. Importantly, physiological relevance, accessibility, and data output of microfluidic angiogenesis systems are compared with traditional angiogenesis assays, and next challenges facing researchers are presented with consideration of the potential integration of automated systems.