Single-Cell Stretching in Viscoelastic Fluids with Electronically Triggered Imaging for Cellular Mechanical...

Area of Science:

• Biophysics
• Cell Biology
• Microfluidics

Background:

• Cellular mechanical properties serve as intrinsic biomarkers for physiological and pathological states.
• Label-free analysis is crucial for accurate cell diagnostics and research.
• High-throughput methods are needed for comprehensive cell phenotyping.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a microfluidic system for high-throughput, label-free cellular mechanical phenotyping.
• To enable on-demand imaging and analysis of single-cell mechanical properties.
• To demonstrate the system's capability in distinguishing cell types and states.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a microfluidic device with viscoelastic fluid flow for single-cell hydrodynamic stretching.
• Employing an electrical sensing unit for on-demand high-speed camera triggering.
• Extracting cellular mechanical phenotypes (size, deformability) from captured images.
• Validating system sensitivity with hydrogel microbeads of known Young's modulus.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated statistically significant differences in deformability among disrupted, normal, and fixed NIH 3T3 fibroblast cells.
• Achieved high accuracy in classifying mixtures of MCF-10A and MDA-MB-231 cells using machine learning.
• Obtained cell analysis accuracy comparable to fluorescence-based flow cytometry.

Conclusions:

• The developed microfluidic system offers a powerful tool for high-throughput, label-free single-cell mechanical analysis.
• This technique provides a label-free alternative for cell diagnostics and biological research.
• The system opens new avenues for diverse biomedical applications requiring precise cell characterization.