Getting Acquainted With the Membrane Microarray for Profiling and Cell Manipulation Microscopy

Molecular biology laboratories all over the world have a great variety of concerns, and one of the greatest is creating methods, protocols, techniques, and machines that can make their work faster. In particular, laboratories want to make their work more efficient, so that for as little work as possible, for a minimal amount of funds, and in the least amount of time, they can come up with useful experimental results that can lead to great discoveries that can do everything from changing mankind, to getting the lab more money to do more work. One such study involves the use of membrane microarray for profiling and cell manipulation microscopy.

Does the technique sound complicated? All it involves is the growth of cells on a membrane, and using their growth patterns to make predictions on how healthy the cells are, how they respond to growth factors or drug treatments, and how efficient manipulation method on them are. Once these cells are completely assessed, thanks to the microarray, more work can proceed, this time in cell manipulation.

What is the Membrane Microarray?

The use of membranes to modulate cell growth and adhesion has long been used by many laboratories in order to understand how cells grow, divide, and produce certain materials in vitro. Because membranes can mimic the appearance and texture of extracellular matrices, they can also show scientists how cells can grow in real living systems. This can be important for scientists who want to understand how cells communicate with each other to form tissues and organs – and this can be important for scientists who want to engineer tissues and organs in the laboratory.

A recent study, however, has also shown that a membrane can also be used as the module by which to identify cells, as well as to create a profile of what kinds of cells work on what kinds of membranes. In a recent study conducted by scientists at the University of California in Berkley, it was found that culturing cells on some membranes allowed cells to grow in a certain manner. For instance, it was found that membranes containing the compound phosphatidylserine could allow cells to adhere to a supporting membrane.

What makes cell adhesion so important? Mammalian cells start out much like free range organisms: stem cells, for instance, do not adhere to certain surfaces, and instead float around in culture. Once they adhere to a certain surface, however, stem cells can begin the process of differentiation: some cells will form a matrix through which cells can adhere; this can be the beginning of the formation of various tissues or organs. A notable exception is our collection of blood cells, which do not have means of adhesion, but which function as free cells.

Those cells that adhere to a substrate, however, take cues from that substrate on what tissue they should form. In the study, scientists used micro-patterned membrane technology in order to direct cells to grow on certain regions. They created a microarray on the membrane itself: certain parts of the membrane contained certain compounds that could allow cells to produce a specific matrix, adhere, or divide, depending on what phenomena those compounds could induce in the cell. According to the scientists, this method of micro-patterning the membrane can be a simple way of creating a pattern of cell growth.

What Significance Does this Have for Today’s Technology?

A membrane microarray can allow scientists to direct cells to produce certain desirable tissues. By designing their own membrane microarrays, scientists can designate certain areas as places where cells should adhere, other areas as locations where cells should produce certain industrially important enzymes, and other areas as places where cells should produce certain enzymes or compounds important to health. All that scientists have to do is to divide the membrane into grids, and place into each grid the compounds that should induce the phenomena that the scientists are after in the cells.

In the same manner, a membrane microarray can be designed as a sorting mechanism. Cells can be sorted according to their ability to produce certain important compounds or enzymes, or they can be sorted according to their ability to adhere to certain substrates. A membrane microarray, therefore, can allow scientists to both sort and manipulate cells without having to go through the tedious process of microscopy.

However, cell manipulation microscopy can still offer some advantages over a microarray. In cell manipulation microscopy, a scientist is completely sure that manipulation has occurred, and all that the scientist needs is confirmation through diagnostic or detection mechanisms, such as flow cytometry, electrophoresis, or even spectrometry. On the other hand, cell manipulation microscopy requires a good deal of skill, and it can process only one cell at a time. A membrane microarray can allow scientists to work with large populations of cells, and with considerably fewer investments in terms of funds and time.

Whatever the case, research still needs to be conducted in both areas of membrane microarray for profiling and cell manipulation microscopy. As each technique has its own advantages and disadvantages, it is up to scientists as to what technique they would like to use to suit their research needs and budgets.