Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 28, 2025
05:58
Clinical Microfluidic Chip Platform for the Isolation of Versatile Circulating Tumor Cells
Published on: October 13, 2023
1.2K
3D-Stacked Multistage Inertial Microfluidic Chip for High-Throughput Enrichment of Circulating Tumor Cells.
1Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of RF Circuits and Systems, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018 Zhejiang, China.
Cyborg and Bionic Systems (Washington, D.C.)
|April 22, 2024
Summary
This study introduces a 3D microfluidic chip for efficiently isolating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood. The novel multistage design achieves high purity and efficiency, enabling rapid downstream analysis for cancer diagnosis.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Microfluidics
- Cell Separation Technology
Background:
- Isolating target cells from complex biological samples is crucial for diagnostics.
- Current methods for circulating tumor cell (CTC) isolation face challenges in efficiency and throughput.
- Integrated microfluidic systems are needed for high-performance cell analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a 3D-stacked multistage inertial microfluidic sorting chip.
- To achieve high-throughput enrichment of circulating tumor cells (CTCs).
- To enable convenient downstream analysis of isolated cells.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a 3D-stacked multistage inertial microfluidic chip design.
- Incorporated a spiral channel with a trapezoidal cross-section for initial separation.
- Employed symmetrical square serpentine channels with varying cross-section widths for further enrichment.
- Tested separation of particles (5 µm, 15 µm) and cancer cells (SW480, A549, Caki-1) from red blood cells (RBCs).
Main Results:
- Achieved high separation efficiency (92.37%) and purity (98.10%) for 5 µm and 15 µm particles at 1.3 mL/min.
- Demonstrated >80% separation efficiency and >90% purity for cancer cells from RBCs.
- Obtained a concentration fold of approximately 20 for tumor cells.
- Reduced outlet flow rate for simplified downstream detection.
Conclusions:
- The 3D-stacked multistage microfluidic chip effectively enriches CTCs with high throughput and purity.
- This system facilitates integration with downstream detection methods for rapid CTC analysis.
- The technology offers a promising solution for advanced cancer diagnostics and single-cell analysis.
