Köster Sarah, Angilè Francesco E, Duan Honey, Agresti Jeremy J, Wintner Anton, Schmitz Christian, Rowat Amy C, Merten Christoph A, Pisignano Dario, Griffiths Andrew D, Weitz David A
Department of Physics and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA.
Lab Chip. 2008 Jul;8(7):1110-5. doi: 10.1039/b802941e. Epub 2008 May 23.
We use microfluidic devices to encapsulate, incubate, and manipulate individual cells in picoliter aqueous drops in a carrier fluid at rates of up to several hundred Hz. We use a modular approach with individual devices for each function, thereby significantly increasing the robustness of our system and making it highly flexible and adaptable to a variety of cell-based assays. The small volumes of the drops enables the concentrations of secreted molecules to rapidly attain detectable levels. We show that single hybridoma cells in 33 pL drops secrete detectable concentrations of antibodies in only 6 h and remain fully viable. These devices hold the promise of developing microfluidic cell cytometers and cell sorters with much greater functionality, allowing assays to be performed on individual cells in their own microenvironment prior to analysis and sorting.
我们使用微流控设备在皮升水滴中封装、孵育并操控单个细胞，这些水滴存在于载液中，频率可达数百赫兹。我们采用模块化方法，针对每个功能使用单独的设备，从而显著提高了系统的稳健性，使其具有高度灵活性并能适应各种基于细胞的检测。水滴的小体积使分泌分子的浓度能够迅速达到可检测水平。我们证明，33皮升水滴中的单个杂交瘤细胞仅在6小时内就能分泌可检测浓度的抗体，并且仍保持完全活力。这些设备有望开发出功能更强大的微流控细胞计数器和细胞分选仪，使检测能够在分析和分选之前在单个细胞自身的微环境中进行。
