10
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING AND CONTROL IN BIOMICROFLUIDICS
10.1 INTRODUCTION
The characterization and control of fluid and particle motion in microfluidic systems have, for some time, been active areas in the industrial field for integrated circuits (ICs), such as cooling and inkjet printing. In recent years, however, applications of microfluidics in the biomedical research field have become increasingly important. Such applications regard both in vivo biological systems, oriented to research in the microcirculation environment, and in vitro systems for the development of integrated devices for the analysis of biological fluids and particles (lab-on-chip [LoC]), and they are referred to here as biomicrofluidic applications.
On one hand, the study of biological microfluidic systems, such as the microcirculatory one, finds application in the diagnostics of pathologies, such as retinal abnormalities, hypertension, and cancer, which can be characterized through the analysis of angiogenesis phenomena and modifications in microcirculation conditions. In this environment, microcirculation is the in vivo key application and involves experimental preparation on laboratory animals and observation of microfluidic phenomena. In particular, animals, such as hamsters and rats, are at the basis of the experimental results presented throughout this chapter. As an example, current experimental studies associated with ...
