School of Mechanical Engineering, and Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Design and Manufacture of Micro-Nano Biomedical Instruments, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China.
School of Mechanical Engineering, and Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Design and Manufacture of Micro-Nano Biomedical Instruments, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China.
Talanta. 2021 Dec 1;235:122807. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2021.122807. Epub 2021 Aug 14.
Conventional batch-top cell sorters are often bulky and expensive, and miniaturized microfluidic sorters available mostly require field generators and electricity-powered pumping systems. Therefore, the development of a low-cost, portable cell sorter that can be used in low resource settings is essential. In this study, we propose such an electricity-free hand-held inertial microfluidic sorter that can be used for the high-efficiency sorting of differently sized cells in a continuous and passive manner. The proposed hand-held sorter is composed of a wheel-shaped all-in-one syringe inertial microfluidic sorter (i-sorter) with flow stabilizer units and two spring-driven mechanical syringe drivers. The release of the compression spring in the mechanical syringe driver through a one-click operation provides the flow driving force. Passive flow stabilizer units in the i-sorter enable flow-rate-sensitive inertial cell separation for the unstable driving flow rate generated by the low-cost mechanical syringe driver. We successfully achieved sorting of differently sized particles and high-efficiency separation of rare tumor cells from the blood using the fabricated prototype. Our hand-held inertial microfluidic cell sorter has many advantages, including low device cost, simple electricity-free operation, compactness, and portability; additionally, samples do not need to be pre-labelled. Therefore, it has potential for use in low-resource settings.
传统的批量细胞分选器通常体积庞大且昂贵，而现有的小型化微流控分选器大多需要场发生器和电动泵送系统。因此，开发一种低成本、便携式的细胞分选器，能够在资源有限的环境中使用，是至关重要的。在本研究中，我们提出了一种无电力的手持式惯性微流控分选器，可以连续、被动地高效分选不同大小的细胞。所提出的手持式分选器由一个轮状一体式注射器惯性微流控分选器（i-sorter）和两个弹簧驱动的机械注射器驱动器组成，配有流动稳定器单元。通过一键操作释放机械注射器驱动器中的压缩弹簧，提供流动驱动力。i-sorter 中的无源流动稳定器单元能够实现对由低成本机械注射器驱动器产生的不稳定驱动流量的流量敏感惯性细胞分离。我们使用制造的原型成功地实现了不同大小颗粒的分选和从血液中高效分离稀有肿瘤细胞。我们的手持式惯性微流控细胞分选器具有许多优点，包括设备成本低、无需电力操作、紧凑轻便，并且样品无需预先标记。因此，它在资源有限的环境中具有应用潜力。
