School of Microelectronics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 201800, China.
Shanghai Aure Technology Limited Company, Shanghai 201800, China.
Sensors (Basel). 2023 Mar 30;23(7):3623. doi: 10.3390/s23073623.
The isolation of single cells is essential for the development of single cell analysis methods, such as single-cell sequencing, monoclonal antibodies, and drug development. Traditional single-cell isolation techniques include flow cytometry (FACS), laser capture microdissection (LCM), micromanipulation, etc., but their operations are complex and have low throughput. Here, we present a microfluidic chip that can isolate individual cells from cell suspension and release them onto a well plate. It uses thermal bubble micropump technology to drive the fluid flow, and single-cell isolation is achieved by matching the flow resistance of the flow channel. Therefore, injection pumps and peristaltic pumps are not required for cell loading. Because of its small size, we can integrate hundreds of single-cell functional modules, which makes high-throughput single-cell isolation possible. For polystyrene beads, the capture rate of the single bead is close to 100%. Finally, the method has been applied to cells, and the capture rate of the single cell is also about 75%. This is a promising method for single-cell isolation.
单细胞的分离对于单细胞分析方法的发展至关重要，例如单细胞测序、单克隆抗体和药物开发。传统的单细胞分离技术包括流式细胞术（FACS）、激光捕获显微切割（LCM）、显微操作等，但它们的操作复杂，通量低。在这里，我们提出了一种微流控芯片，可以从细胞悬浮液中分离单个细胞，并将其释放到微孔板上。它使用热气泡微泵技术来驱动流体流动，通过匹配流道的流动阻力来实现单细胞分离。因此，不需要注射泵和蠕动泵进行细胞加载。由于其体积小，我们可以集成数百个单细胞功能模块，从而实现高通量单细胞分离。对于聚苯乙烯珠，单个珠的捕获率接近 100%。最后，该方法已应用于细胞，单细胞的捕获率也约为 75%。这是一种很有前途的单细胞分离方法。
