Analysis of C.elegans by droplet microfluidics has been widely used in study of locomotive behavior responses to neurotoxicity due to the capacity of high-throughput manipulating single cells. However, it has been difficult to manipulate droplets flexibly and actively on account of the limitation of the dimension of individual C. elegans droplets. In this study, a novel MiDMS (Micro-injection Droplet Microfluidic System) was proposed, which consisted of three parts: single C. elegans droplet generator, droplets drug micro-injection channels and drug-incubation observation array. Individual C.elegans droplets were produced initially by regulating the flow rates between oil and water phase as well as the concentration of C.elegans in suspension. Then, the drug solution was precisely injected into each C.elegans droplet, which by electricity induced surface tension of droplet changing. In addition, the effect of neurotoxic Cu2+ on locomotive behavior of C. elegans was evaluated at single cell resolution. The results showed that the neurotoxicity induced behavioral disorder of the C. elegans was more obvious with the increase of Cu2+ concentration or treatment time, and these dose-effect and time-effect relationship in MiDMS were similar as in petri dish. This study will provide a powerful platform for the study of the response of C. elegans to quantitative drug at single cell resolution.

中文翻译：

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一种新型微注射液滴微流体系统，用于研究单个秀丽隐杆线虫对 Cu2+ 诱导的神经毒素的运动行为反应

由于高通量操纵单细胞的能力，通过液滴微流体分析线虫已广泛用于研究对神经毒性的机车行为反应。然而，由于单个线虫液滴尺寸的限制，很难灵活和主动地操纵液滴。本研究提出了一种新型的MiDMS（Micro-injection Droplet Microfluidic System），它由三部分组成：单线虫液滴发生器、液滴药物微注射通道和药物孵育观察阵列。最初通过调节油相和水相之间的流速以及悬液中的线虫浓度来产生单个线虫液滴。然后，将药物溶液精确地注入每个秀丽隐杆线虫液滴中，通过电致液滴的表面张力发生变化。此外，在单细胞分辨率下评估了神经毒性 Cu2+ 对秀丽隐杆线虫运动行为的影响。结果表明，随着Cu2+浓度的增加或处理时间的增加，秀丽隐杆线虫的神经毒性引起的行为障碍更加明显，且这些在MiDMS中的量效和时效关系与培养皿中相似。这项研究将为在单细胞分辨率下研究秀丽隐杆线虫对定量药物的反应提供一个强大的平台。elegans随着Cu2+浓度或处理时间的增加更明显，MiDMS中这些量效和时效关系与培养皿中相似。这项研究将为在单细胞分辨率下研究秀丽隐杆线虫对定量药物的反应提供一个强大的平台。elegans随着Cu2+浓度或处理时间的增加更明显，MiDMS中这些量效和时效关系与培养皿中相似。这项研究将为在单细胞分辨率下研究秀丽隐杆线虫对定量药物的反应提供一个强大的平台。