Printable Hydrogel Arrays for Portable and High-Throughput Shear-Mediated Assays.

Abstract

Hydrogels have been widely used to entrap biomolecules for various biocatalytic reactions. However, solute diffusion in these matrices to initiate such reactions can be a very slow process. Conventional mixing remains a challenge as it can cause irreversible distortion or fragmentation of the hydrogel itself. To overcome the diffusion-limit, a shear-stress-mediated platform named the portable vortex-fluidic device (P-VFD) is developed. P-VFD is a portable platform which consists of two main components, (i) a plasma oxazoline-coated polyvinyl chloride (POx-PVC) film with polyacrylamide and alginate (PAAm/Alg-Ca2+) tough hydrogel covalently bound to its surface and (ii) a reactor tube (L × D: 90 mm × 20 mm) where the aforementioned POx-PVC film could be readily inserted for reactions. Through a spotting machine, the PAAm/Alg-Ca2+ hydrogel can be readily printed on a POx-PVC film in an array pattern and up to 25.4 J/m2 adhesion energy can be achieved. The hydrogel arrays on the film not only offer a strong matrix for entrapping biomolecules such as streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase but are also shear stress-tolerant in the reactor tube, enabling a >6-fold increase in its reaction rate after adding tetramethylbenzidine, relative to incubation. Through using the tough hydrogel and its stably bonded substrate, this portable platform effectively overcomes the diffusion-limit and achieves fast assay detection without causing appreciable hydrogel array deformation or dislocation on the substrate film.

• Authors: Xuan Luo, Wenjin Xing, Iliana Delcheva, Fayed Abdullah Alrashaidi, Amir Heydari, Dennis Palms, Vi Khanh Truong, Krasimir Vasilev, Zhongfan Jia, Wei Zhang, Peng Su, Kasturi Vimalanathan, Aghil Igder, Gregory A Weiss, Youhong Tang, Melanie MacGregor, Colin L Raston
• Journal: ACS applied materials & interfaces (ACS Appl Mater Interfaces) Vol. 15 Issue 26 Pg. 31114-31123 (Jul 05 2023) ISSN: 1944-8252 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 37339239 (Publication Type: Journal Article)