Aggregation and Long-term Positioning of Cells by Ultrasound in a Multi-well Microchip for High-resolution Imaging of the Natural Killer Cell Immune Synapse

In this study we investigate the ability of Natural Killer (NK) cells to form ultrasound-mediated intercellular contacts with target cells in a multi-well microdevice by high-resolution confocal-microscopy imaging of inhibitory immune synapses. Furthermore, we compare the NK-Target cell cluster migration with and without ultrasound actuation. Experiments indicate that clusters of cells are positioned and maintained centered in the wells for 17 hours when they are exposed continuously to ultrasound. Our system can be used for both screening high numbers of events in low resolution and also for high resolution imaging of long term cell-cell interactions.