A hydrodynamic-based dual-function microfluidic chip for high throughput discriminating tumor cells.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Microfluidics
• Cell Separation Technology

Background:

• Accurate separation of tumor cells (TCs) from whole blood is crucial for cancer diagnosis and treatment monitoring.
• Existing methods often face challenges with efficiency, purity, and throughput.
• Microfluidic devices offer a promising platform for precise cell manipulation and separation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and validate a novel hydrodynamic-based microfluidic chip for efficient separation and purification of tumor cells from whole blood.
• To leverage microfluidic principles for size-dependent cell sorting, enabling high-purity tumor cell isolation.

Main Methods:

• A microfluidic chip integrating a contraction-expansion array (CEA) microchannel for initial tumor cell separation based on size-dependent lift forces.
• A subsequent hydrodynamic filtration (HDF) unit for removing residual blood cells, ensuring high purity of isolated tumor cells.
• Utilized fluorescent particles and MCF-7 cancer cells to simulate and validate the separation and purification performance.

Main Results:

• The CEA microchannel demonstrated high separation efficiency for larger particles/cells (e.g., 98.7% for 19.3 μm particles, 96.1% for MCF-7 cells).
• Achieved significant removal rates for smaller blood cells (e.g., 96.2% for 4.5 μm particles, 96.2% for RBCs, 98.7% for WBCs).
• The combined chip achieved a tumor cell separation rate of approximately 95.3% and over 99.99% removal of blood cells.

Conclusions:

• The developed hydrodynamic microfluidic chip effectively separates tumor cells from whole blood with high purity.
• The two-stage design, incorporating CEA and HDF, offers a robust solution for clinical applications requiring precise cell isolation.
• This technology holds potential for advancing liquid biopsy techniques and personalized cancer therapy.