基于微流控芯片的人工细胞研究进展

Advances in artificial cells based on microfluidic chips

摘要:

合成生物学的主要目标之一是自下而上地构建人工细胞。它不仅能深入理解生命的起源和细胞功能，还能在人工细胞底盘、组织模型、工程治疗递送系统和药物筛选工具等领域发挥关键作用。然而，这一目标的实现极具挑战，细胞结构的复杂性、基础模块的微型化和多样性对构建方法提出了极高要求。微流控芯片作为一种先进的分析系统，为人工细胞的构建提供了一种有效工具，能够更精确地控制其结构及局部微环境，成为当前研究的首选途径。本文综述了基于微流控芯片的人工细胞构建、操作与分析方法，强调了微环境对生命系统和人工自我维持体系的重要性，展示了人工细胞在多个关键生物医学领域的广泛应用。通过探讨不同微流控方法的优缺点及其在各种应用中的表现，帮助研究人员更深入地理解人工细胞相关研究。最后，对基于微流控技术的人工细胞研究的未来发展进行了展望，期待这一领域能够取得更大突破和进步。

Abstract:

One of the main goals of synthetic biology is to build artificial cells in a bottom-up manner, which not only facilitates the deep understanding of the origin of life and cell function but also plays a critical role in the research fields such as the development of artificial cell chassis, tissue models, engineering drug delivery systems, and drug screening tools. However, achieving this goal is extremely challenging. The complexity of cell structures and the miniaturization and diversity of basic modules pose high requirements for the construction methods. The microfluidic chip, as an advanced microanalysis system, serves as an effective tool for building artificial cells. It can accurately control the structure and local microenvironment of artificial cells, becoming the preferred approach for the current research on synthetic life. This article reviewed the methods of constructing, manipulating, and analyzed artificial cells based on microfluidic chips, emphasized the importance of the microenvironment for life systems and artificial self-sustaining systems. In addition, this article demonstrated the wide applications of artificial cells in multiple critical biomedical fields. Exploring the advantages, disadvantages, and application performance of different microfluidic methods can enrich our knowledge about artificial cell research. Finally, we made an outlook on the development of artificial cell research based on microfluidics, expecting that this field can achieve greater breakthroughs and progress.