Rapid and Safe Isolation of Human Peripheral Blood B and T Lymphocytes through Spiral Microfluidic Channels

Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) are mature lymphocytes that circulate in the blood rather than being localized to organs. A reliable label-free collection approach that can viably and appropriately isolate PBLs to establish in vitro culture systems is crucial for basic research and clinical requirements. However, isolation of PBLs from whole blood is difficult, and so the development of a rapid and safe method to perform this task is required. Microfluidic technology offers opportunities that challenge the performance of macroscale methods. In this study, we proposed a simple spiral microfluidic chip for efficient and high-throughput isolation of lymphocytes from a sample with prelysed RBCs. This spiral microfluidic platform does not rely on antibodies or biological markers for labeling cells of interest while isolating lymphocytes but rather enriches B and T lymphocytes through the different physical properties that are intrinsic to lymphocytes and other blood cells. The device was used to achieve high-throughput (~1.3 × 10⁵ cells/min) separation of lymphocytes with high viability (>95%). Compared with previous approaches, our device provided rapid, label-free, high-throughput, and safe lymphocyte separation.