Department of Power Mechanical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan.
Biomed Microdevices. 2013 Apr;15(2):339-52. doi: 10.1007/s10544-013-9739-y.
Ovarian cancer is the second most common of the gynecological cancers in Taiwan. It is challenging to diagnose at an early stage when proper treatment is the most effective. It is well recognized that the detection of tumor cells (TCs) is critical for determining cancer growth stages and may provide important information for accurate diagnosis and even prognosis. In this study, a new microfluidic platform integrated with a moving-wall micro-incubator, a micro flow cytometer and a molecular diagnosis module performed automated identification of ovarian cancer cells. By efficiently mixing the cells and immunomagnetic beads coated with specific antibodies, the target TCs were successfully isolated from the clinical samples. Then counting of the target cells was achieved by a combination of the micro flow cytometer and an optical detection module and showed a counting accuracy as high as 92.5 %. Finally, cancer-associated genes were amplified and detected by the downstream molecular diagnosis module. The fluorescence intensity of specific genes (CD24 and HE4) associated with ovarian cancer was amplified by the molecular diagnosis module and the results were comparable to traditional slab-gel electrophoresis analysis, with a limit of detection around 10 TCs. This integrated microfluidic platform realized the concept of a "lab-on-a-chip" and had advantages which included automation, disposability, lower cost and rapid diagnosis and, therefore, may provide a promising approach for the fast and accurate detection of cancer cells.
卵巢癌是台湾第二常见的妇科癌症。在早期阶段进行诊断具有挑战性，因为此时适当的治疗最为有效。众所周知，肿瘤细胞（TCs）的检测对于确定癌症生长阶段至关重要，并且可能为准确诊断甚至预后提供重要信息。在这项研究中，一个集成了移动壁微孵育器、微流控细胞仪和分子诊断模块的新微流控平台可自动识别卵巢癌细胞。通过有效地混合细胞和涂有特定抗体的免疫磁珠，成功地从临床样本中分离出了目标 TCs。然后，通过微流控细胞仪和光学检测模块的组合实现了对目标细胞的计数，其计数准确性高达 92.5%。最后，下游分子诊断模块对癌症相关基因进行扩增和检测。分子诊断模块可扩增与卵巢癌相关的特定基因（CD24 和 HE4）的荧光强度，其结果与传统的平板凝胶电泳分析相当，检测限约为 10 个 TCs。这种集成的微流控平台实现了“片上实验室”的概念，具有自动化、一次性使用、成本低和快速诊断等优势，因此可能为快速准确地检测癌细胞提供一种有前途的方法。
