Benchtop Technologies for Circulating Tumor Cells Separation Based on Biophysical Properties

Figure 2

Schematics of various microfiltration mechanisms: (a) membrane microfilter (reproduced with permission from [10], copyright 2014, The Royal Society of Chemistry). Its fluid flow configuration can be further categorized into two types, which is dead-end filtration and crossflow filtration. (b) 3D membrane microfilter with key geometrical parameters labelled. The smaller cells can easily traverse through the gap while the large cells (e.g., tumor cells) will be trapped. Two types of force are exerted in the trapped cell such that force is caused by hydrodynamic pressure from top and supporting force from bottom membrane (reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd.: Scientific Reports [11], copyright 2015). (c) 3D palladium membrane microfilter cassette and its SEM images of filter (reprinted with permission from [12], copyright 2014, PloS One). The cross-sectional view showing tumor cells will be trapped within the gap of the membranes [13]. (d) Membrane slot filter design. (e) Weir-type filter (adapted with permission from [14], copyright 2001, American Chemical Society). A silt-type structure is fabricated within the flow channel to improve the target cells retention. The smaller weir gap is designed to allow human RBC and plasma to pass through while retaining CTCs. (f) Cross-sectional view of diagonally weir-type filtration (reproduced with permission from [15], copyright 2012, John Wiley and Sons). (g) Bead-packed based filtration. The microchannel entrance is blocked by packing large sized beads. Different bead sizes were used to implement a blood/plasma separator at the inlet of the microchannel. Subsequently, when whole blood was dropped into the inlet of the microchannel, the structure was allowed for the capillary flow of blood through the hetero-packed beads. During this movement of blood, the RBC will pass through small pores while big sizes cells such as CTCs will be blocked from flowing into the channel (reproduced with permission from [16], copyright 2012, The Royal Society of Chemistry).

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