School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China.
School of Engineering Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China.
ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2023 Sep 11;9(9):5430-5440. doi: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.3c00820. Epub 2023 Aug 21.
With the emergence of various cutting-edge micromachining technologies, lab on a chip is growing rapidly, but it is always a challenge to realize the on-chip separation of living cells from cell samples without affecting cell activity and function. Herein, we report a novel on-chip label-free method for sorting living and dead cells by integrating the hypertonic stimulus and tilted-angle standing surface acoustic wave (T-SSAW) technologies. On a self-designed microfluidic chip, the hypertonic stimulus is used to distinguish cells by producing volume differences between living and dead cells, while T-SSAW is used to separate living and dead cells according to the cell volume difference. Under the optimized operation conditions, for the sample containing 50% of living human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and 50% of dead HUVECs treated with paraformaldehyde, the purity of living cells after the first separation can reach approximately 80%, while after the second separation, it can be as high as 93%; furthermore, the purity of living cells after separation increases with the initial proportion of living cells. In addition, the chip we designed is safe for cells and can robustly handle cell samples with different cell types or different causes of cell death. This work provides a new design of a microfluidic chip for label-free sorting of living and dead cells, greatly promoting the multi-functionality of lab on a chip.
随着各种前沿微加工技术的出现，芯片实验室正在迅速发展，但如何在不影响细胞活性和功能的情况下，实现细胞样品中活细胞与死细胞的芯片内分离，一直是一个挑战。在此，我们报告了一种新颖的、基于非标记的方法，通过整合高渗刺激和倾斜角驻波声（T-SSAW）技术，对活细胞和死细胞进行分类。在自行设计的微流控芯片上，高渗刺激用于通过产生活细胞和死细胞之间的体积差异来区分细胞，而 T-SSAW 则用于根据细胞体积差异来分离活细胞和死细胞。在优化的操作条件下，对于含有 50%活的人脐静脉内皮细胞（HUVEC）和 50%经多聚甲醛处理的死 HUVEC 的样品，第一次分离后活细胞的纯度约为 80%，第二次分离后可达 93%；此外，分离后活细胞的纯度随初始活细胞比例的增加而增加。此外，我们设计的芯片对细胞是安全的，可以有效地处理具有不同细胞类型或不同细胞死亡原因的细胞样品。这项工作为活细胞和死细胞的非标记分类提供了一种新的微流控芯片设计，极大地推动了芯片实验室的多功能性。
