Cell lysis via acoustically oscillating sharp edges

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Acoustofluidics
• Cell Biology

Background:

• Cell lysis is a critical step in many biological and biomedical analyses.
• Existing cell lysis methods often require reagents and can be time-consuming or inefficient.
• There is a need for rapid, reagent-free, and efficient cell lysis techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate an acoustofluidic device for reagent-free cell lysis.
• To investigate the mechanism of cell membrane rupture via acoustic streaming-induced shear forces.
• To evaluate the device's efficiency and applicability to various cell types and clinical samples.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of an acoustofluidic device with sharp-edged structures.
• Induction of acoustic streaming using oscillating structures.
• Application of acoustic streaming-derived shear forces for cell membrane rupture.
• Continuous flow cell lysis experiments at various flow rates.

Main Results:

• Achieved over 90% cell lysis efficiency across a range of sample flow rates.
• Demonstrated successful lysis of both adherent and non-adherent cells.
• Validated the device with clinically relevant samples, including malaria-infected red blood cells.
• Enabled downstream protein and gene analysis without post-lysis washing steps.

Conclusions:

• The acoustofluidic device provides an efficient, continuous, and reagent-free method for cell lysis.
• The device is versatile, applicable to diverse cell types and clinical samples.
• Its simplicity, low sample volume consumption, and suitability for downstream analysis make it valuable for point-of-care applications.