Microfluidic High-Migratory Cell Collector Suppressing Artifacts Caused by Microstructures

The small number of high-migratory cancer cells in a cell population make studies on high-migratory cancer cells difficult. For the development of migration assays for such cancer cells, several microfluidic devices have been developed. However, they measure migration that is influenced by microstructures and they collect not only high-migratory cells, but also surrounding cells. In order to find high-migratory cells in cell populations while suppressing artifacts and to collect these cells while minimizing damages, we developed a microfluidic high-migratory cell collector with the ability to sort cancer cells according to cellular migration and mechanical detachment. High-migratory cancer cells travel further from the starting line when all of the cells are seeded on the same starting line. The high-migratory cells are detached using a stretch of cell adhesive surface using a water-driven balloon actuator. Using this cell collector, we selected high-migratory HeLa cells that migrated about 100m in 12 h and collected the cells.