Advanced flow cell instrumentation for in vitro cellular assays

The CrossFlux™ System enables high content three-dimensional in vitro assays under physiological flow conditions. The proprietary flow cell device creates 3D scaffolds under shear flow conditions that facilitates study of vascular physiology, stem cell homing, transmigration, and chemokine signaling.

CrossFlux facilitates a wide range of cellular assays, including cellular adhesion, transmigration, blood-brain barrier modeling, stem cell homing, and vascular permeability. At the core of the system is a flow cell which contains cell culture inserts. Each insert can be exposed to unique chemokine or signaling reagents in a sub-cellular compartment. Circulating cells or drug compounds are introduced under physiological flow conditions and subsequently collected following transmigration across the cellular monolayer. Cells can be analyzed using microscopy, proteomic, or genomic techniques.

Establishes more physiologically relevant in vitro assays

Utilizes a sub-cellular reagent reservoir for chemokine signalling. Provides the option for a secondary cellular layer to further enhance model. Incorporates physiological shear stress on monolayers and circulating cells.

Flexible downstream analysis options

After experiments, the flow cell comes apart and cell inserts can be removed. Collect transmigrated cells and cells from the monolayers for culture and analysis using proteomic and genomic techniques.

Easy to set up and operate

Flow controller does not require any programming or PC connection. Flow cell inserts come pre-sterilized and ready for use. Up to eight flow cell devices can be run in parallel, each with three chemokine conditions, for a total of 24 conditions tested at a time.

Representative application:

In this example, peripheral blood monocytes (PBMCs) were stained with calcein AM (green) and introduced under flow conditions to the CrossFlux flow chamber. The HUVEC monolayer (stained red) was stimulated with TNF-alpha for 4 hours and a sub-endothelial monolayer of astrocytes were cultured immediately below the HUVECs to simulate a blood brain barrier model. Chemokine was placed the the sub-cellular reservoir (CCL-2/MCP-1 at 20ng/ml).

PBMCs were circulated for two hours at 37°C in HBSS with 0.5% FBS. HUVEC and astrocyte membranes were recovered from the chamber and imaged top and bottom. The image below shows the bottom of the HUVEC membrane layer (red) with the transmigrated PBMCs (green).