Dissolvable mobile microplates for handling adherent cells

This paper describes a preliminary report of microfabricated dissolvable mobile microplates for handling adherent cells. We fabricated micron-sized (10~100 μm) alginate hydrogel plates by soft lithography, attached adherent cells, and handled them. In contrast to previous microplates [1-3], the alginate microplates could be dissolved without damaging cells. We demonstrated dissolution of microplates after cell handling, which resulted in changing positions of adherent cells without direct contact. We believe our method will be applicable to on-demand handling, location, and assembly of adherent cells for basic biological studies and tissue engineering.