Bridging the gap : towards microfluidic single cell analysis of in vivo stimulated cells

We present a novel strategy to enable cellular analysis of in vivo models in microfluidic devices. The strategy combines microdissection of tissue samples and microfluidics for cell capturing and analysis. The technique is optimized for cell capture and analysis of bone, so spatial information can be linked to important information concerning individual cells’ microenvironments, such as strain energy density. In contrast to state of the art microfluidic devices for cell analysis, which are mostly limited to the use of cell suspensions, the presented study opens up the possibility for celldirected analysis of in vivo models.