Centrifugal microfluidics for sorting immune cells from whole blood

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Microfluidics
• Cellular Biology

Background:

• Immune cell sorting and enumeration are vital for clinical applications.
• Conventional methods like flow cytometry are complex and unsuitable for point-of-care (POC) testing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a microscale centrifugal technology (Centrifugal Microfluidic Chip - CMC) for efficient immune cell sorting and in situ analysis.
• To evaluate the CMC's performance in separating and analyzing immune cells from human whole blood.

Main Methods:

• Utilized microfluidic channels and density gradient centrifugation for immune cell separation based on density differentials.
• Investigated surface passivation techniques using various blocking molecules.
• Demonstrated multi-color imaging for analyzing immune cell distributions and enrichment.

Main Results:

• The CMC successfully sorted immune cell subpopulations from minimally processed human whole blood without compromising cell viability.
• Achieved high recovery and purity rates for peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).
• Demonstrated the simplicity, portability, and efficiency of the CMC system.

Conclusions:

• The Centrifugal Microfluidic Chip (CMC) provides a promising platform for rapid blood-based diagnosis and disease monitoring.
• Its design facilitates point-of-care applications due to its simplicity, portability, and in situ analysis capabilities.