School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
School of Health & Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Lab Chip. 2016 Aug 16;16(17):3177-92. doi: 10.1039/c6lc00712k.
Microfluidic systems enable rapid diagnosis, screening and monitoring of diseases and health conditions using small amounts of biological samples and reagents. Despite these remarkable features, conventional microfluidic systems rely on bulky expensive external equipment, which hinders their utility as powerful analysis tools outside of research laboratories. 'Self-contained' microfluidic systems, which contain all necessary components to facilitate a complete assay, have been developed to address this limitation. In this review, we provide an in-depth overview of self-contained microfluidic systems. We categorise these systems based on their operating mechanisms into three major groups: passive, hand-powered and active. Several examples are provided to discuss the structure, capabilities and shortcomings of each group. In particular, we discuss the self-contained microfluidic systems enabled by active mechanisms, due to their unique capability for running multi-step and highly controllable diagnostic assays. Integration of self-contained microfluidic systems with the image acquisition and processing capabilities of smartphones, especially those equipped with accessory optical components, enables highly sensitive and quantitative assays, which are discussed. Finally, the future trends and possible solutions to expand the versatility of self-contained, stand-alone microfluidic platforms are outlined.
微流控系统使用少量的生物样本和试剂，实现了疾病和健康状况的快速诊断、筛查和监测。尽管具有这些显著的特点，但传统的微流控系统依赖于庞大昂贵的外部设备，这限制了它们在研究实验室之外作为强大分析工具的实用性。为了解决这一限制，已经开发出了包含所有必要组件以促进完整分析的“自包含”微流控系统。在这篇综述中，我们对自包含微流控系统进行了深入的概述。我们根据其操作机制将这些系统分为三类：被动式、手动式和主动式。提供了几个示例来讨论每个组的结构、功能和缺点。特别是，我们讨论了由于主动机制实现的自包含微流控系统，由于其独特的能力可以运行多步骤和高度可控的诊断分析。将自包含微流控系统与智能手机的图像采集和处理功能（特别是那些配备了附加光学组件的智能手机）集成，实现了高度敏感和定量的分析，对此我们也进行了讨论。最后，概述了扩展自包含、独立式微流控平台多功能性的未来趋势和可能的解决方案。
