Petruzzellis Isabella, Martínez Vázquez Rebeca, Caragnano Stefania, Gaudiuso Caterina, Osellame Roberto, Ancona Antonio, Volpe Annalisa
Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Bari & Politecnico di Bari, Via Orabona 4, 7016 Bari, Italy.
Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies (IFN), National Research Council, Piazza L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy.
Micromachines (Basel). 2024 Sep 6;15(9):1135. doi: 10.3390/mi15091135.
Inertial focusing-based Lab-on-Chip systems represent a promising technology for cell sorting in various applications, thanks to their alignment with the ASSURED criteria recommended by the World Health Organization: Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User-friendly, Rapid and Robust, Equipment-free, and Delivered. Inertial focusing techniques using spiral microchannels offer a rapid, portable, and easy-to-prototype solution for cell sorting. Various microfluidic devices have been investigated in the literature to understand how hydrodynamic forces influence particle focusing in spiral microchannels. This is crucial for the effective prototyping of devices that allow for high-throughput and efficient filtration of particles of different sizes. However, a clear, comprehensive, and organized overview of current research in this area is lacking. This review aims to fill this gap by offering a thorough summary of the existing literature, thereby guiding future experimentation and facilitating the selection of spiral geometries and materials for cell sorting in microchannels. To this end, we begin with a detailed theoretical introduction to the physical mechanisms underlying particle separation in spiral microfluidic channels. We also dedicate a section to the materials and prototyping techniques most commonly used for spiral microchannels, highlighting and discussing their respective advantages and disadvantages. Subsequently, we provide a critical examination of the key details of inertial focusing across various cross-sections (rectangular, trapezoidal, triangular, hybrid) in spiral devices as reported in the literature.
基于惯性聚焦的芯片实验室系统是一种很有前景的技术，可用于各种应用中的细胞分选，这得益于其符合世界卫生组织推荐的ASSURED标准：价格可承受、灵敏、特异、用户友好、快速且稳健、无需设备以及可交付使用。使用螺旋微通道的惯性聚焦技术为细胞分选提供了一种快速、便携且易于制作原型的解决方案。文献中已经研究了各种微流体装置，以了解流体动力如何影响螺旋微通道中的粒子聚焦。这对于能够对不同大小的粒子进行高通量高效过滤的装置的有效原型制作至关重要。然而，目前该领域缺乏清晰、全面且有条理的研究综述。本综述旨在通过对现有文献进行全面总结来填补这一空白，从而指导未来的实验，并为微通道中细胞分选的螺旋几何形状和材料选择提供便利。为此，我们首先详细介绍螺旋微流体通道中粒子分离的物理机制的理论基础。我们还专门用一节介绍螺旋微通道最常用的材料和原型制作技术，突出并讨论它们各自的优缺点。随后，我们对文献中报道的螺旋装置中各种横截面（矩形、梯形、三角形、混合形）的惯性聚焦关键细节进行批判性审视。
