Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Lab Chip. 2014 Jan 7;14(1):78-88. doi: 10.1039/c3lc50580d.
Detection and characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may reveal insights into the diagnosis and treatment of malignant disease. Technologies for isolating CTCs developed thus far suffer from one or more limitations, such as low throughput, inability to release captured cells, and reliance on expensive instrumentation for enrichment or subsequent characterization. We report a continuing development of a magnetic separation device, the magnetic sifter, which is a miniature microfluidic chip with a dense array of magnetic pores. It offers high efficiency capture of tumor cells, labeled with magnetic nanoparticles, from whole blood with high throughput and efficient release of captured cells. For subsequent characterization of CTCs, an assay, using a protein chip with giant magnetoresistive nanosensors, has been implemented for mutational analysis of CTCs enriched with the magnetic sifter. The use of these magnetic technologies, which are separate devices, may lead the way to routine preparation and characterization of "liquid biopsies" from cancer patients.
检测和表征循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）可能有助于深入了解恶性疾病的诊断和治疗。迄今为止，用于分离 CTC 的技术存在一种或多种局限性，例如通量低、无法释放捕获的细胞，以及依赖昂贵的仪器进行富集或后续表征。我们报告了一种磁性分离装置的持续发展，即磁性筛选器，它是一种带有密集排列的磁性孔的微型微流控芯片。它能够高效地从全血中捕获标记有磁性纳米颗粒的肿瘤细胞，具有高通量和高效释放捕获细胞的特点。为了对 CTC 进行后续表征，我们使用带有巨磁电阻纳米传感器的蛋白质芯片，实现了对磁性筛选器富集的 CTC 的突变分析。这些磁性技术（它们是独立的设备）的使用可能为癌症患者的“液体活检”的常规制备和表征开辟道路。
