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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1494553

Modular Cone-and-Plate Device for Mechanofluidic Assays in Transwell Inserts

Provisionally accepted
Daniel Chavarria Daniel Chavarria 1Kissamy Georges Kissamy Georges 2Brian J O'Grady Brian J O'Grady 1Khalid K Hassan Khalid K Hassan 3Ethan Lippmann Ethan Lippmann 1*
  • 1 Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
  • 2 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States
  • 3 School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt, Nashville, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In this work, we present a cost effective and open-source modular cone-and-plate (MoCAP) device that incorporates shear stress in the popular Transwell® insert system. This system acts as a lid that incorporates flow into 24-well Transwell® inserts while preserving the ability to conduct molecular profiling assays. Moreover, the MoCAP device can be rapidly reconfigured to test multiple shear stress profiles within a single device. To demonstrate the utility of the MoCAP, we conducted select assays on several different brain microvascular endothelial cell (BMEC) lines that comprise models of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), since shear stress can play an important role in BBB function. Our results characterize how shear stress modulates passive barrier function and GLUT1 expression across the different BMEC lines. Overall, we anticipate this low cost mechanofluidic device will be useful to the mechanobiology community.

    Keywords: blood-brain barrier1, shear stress2, Transwell®3, endothelial cell4, Mechanobiology5, blood flow6, cone-and-plate7 (Min.5-Max. 8

    Received: 11 Sep 2024; Accepted: 06 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Chavarria, Georges, O'Grady, Hassan and Lippmann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ethan Lippmann, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.