Benchtop Technologies for Circulating Tumor Cells Separation Based on Biophysical Properties

Figure 5

Types of hydrodynamic cell sorting: (a) Pinched flow fractionation. In both microfluidic design by (i) and (ii) Takagi et al. [20], multiple branch channels with different channel dimensions were arranged at the end of the pinched segment, thus resulted flow rate distribution to each channel was different. Cell would then enter into their respectively outlet in accordance to their size (Reprinted with permission from [20]. Copyright 2005 The Royal Society of Chemistry.). As illustrated in (iii) [21], the smaller particle will closely follow the fluid streamline and move toward the upper portion of the exit area, while the larger particles move closer to the center. This is due to the smaller cells tends to move faster under hydrodynamic force which resulted them to press closer to the wall as the flow ratio increase (Reprinted with permission from [21]. Copyright 2013, John Wiley and Sons.). (b) Deterministic lateral displacement. The presence of array of microposts (which each row of posts is slightly offset laterally with respect to the previous row) will cause the cells below critical hydrodynamic diameters (such as WBC and RBC) to follow the streamlines cyclically through the gaps. Meanwhile, cell above critical hydrodynamic posts such as CTCs will be moved by lateral drag into sequential streamline at each post (reprinted with permission from [22], copyright 2013, AIP Publishing LLC). (c) Inertial separation. When the blood sample is pumped into the spiral channel, the centrifugal acceleration of fluid flow will result in the formation of two symmetrical counter-rotating vortices across the channel. The smaller cell such as RBC and WBC will move along the vortices toward the inner wall and back to the outer wall, while larger CTCs will focus along the inner wall due to the additional strong inertial lift forces (reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd.: Scientific Reports [23], copyright 2013). (d) Contraction expansion microfluidic device. Dean drag forces are induced at the entrance of contraction region and thus result in blood sample which flow through this region to have an influence by inertial lift force. RBC and WBC will move toward while cancer cells move toward (reprinted with permission from [24], copyright 2013, American Chemical Society).

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