Immuno-microarrays Using Liquidlike Antibiofouling Surfaces for Facile Ovarian Hormone Assay in Microliter Clinical...

Slippery liquid-like surfaces have shown broad application prospects in the biomedical field, because of their excellent antibiofouling, self-cleaning, and hydrophobic properties. While they could address common biological contaminations in biosensors, their potentials in microarray-based assay of real clinical samples have yet to be explored. Herein, we assessed a facilely prepared immuno-microarray platform on the basis of patterned slippery covalently attached linear polydimethylsiloxane (LPDMS) brushes for the determination of trace ovarian hormone levels in <1 μL serum samples. The Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), a key biomarker in ovarian function evaluation, as well as assisted reproductive technology, is demonstrated as a proof-of-concept. By exploiting the hydrophobic silicone microlines uniformly printed on LPDMS-modified substrates, sandwiched immunofluorescence microarrays and parallel incubation of multiple microdroplet samples on the same chip were allowed, achieving a limit of detection (LOD) lower than 1 ng mL^-1 and good linearity over the clinical serum AMH range of 1-10 ng mL^-1. Furthermore, we validated its effectiveness in the reliable quantitation of AMH levels in undiluted human serum samples, providing comparable results to the clinical testing values. These results highlighted the role of micropatterned slippery surfaces in developing low-cost biosensors compatible with complex biofluids, with broad application prospects in high-throughput multiplexed biochips, smart biointegrated systems, and health monitoring.