Impedimetric Cell Detection using Microfluidic Viscoelastic Focusing
Abstract
Identification and successive separation of cell
populations have a vast number of applications in both clinical research and
basic sciences. In the last few decades several custom-made microfluidic
systems have been developed to address the differentiation needs of the
researchers. For all these systems there is a need for focusing the cells of
interest in the interrogation zone during the flow. In this article, a new
method of viscoelastic focusing was used for this purpose. By adding polymeric
materials into the carrying fluid, elastic lift force was generated on the
cells that allows passive particle focusing. Once the cells are aligned with
the sensor, detection and identification was achieved using impedance
characterization. The carrier fluid properties were investigated to achieve
successful viscoelastic focusing and impedimetric detection. Two blood cell
types, red blood cells and white blood cells, were differentiated based on
their impedance signal. In addition to its capability as a microfluidic cell
counter, this work reveals the possibility of using viscoelastic focusing for
flow through impedance based particle characterization.
Keywords
Microfluidics,cell counting,impedance detection,viscoelastic focusing
References
- D’Avino, Gaetano, Francesco Greco, & Pier Luca Maffettone. (2017). Particle Migration Due to Viscoelasticity of the Suspending Liquid and Its Relevance in Microfluidic Devices. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 49(1), 341–60.
- Daniele, Michael A., Darryl A. Boyd, David R. Mott, & Frances S. Ligler. (2015). 3D Hydrodynamic Focusing Microfluidics for Emerging Sensing Technologies. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 67, 25–34.
- Dziubinski, M. (2012). Hydrodynamic Focusing in Microfluidic Devices. In Advances in Microfluidics. InTech.
- Go, Taesik, Hyeokjun Byeon, & Sang Joon Lee. (2017). Focusing and Alignment of Erythrocytes in a Viscoelastic Medium. Scientific Reports, 7. Nature Publishing Group: 41162.
- Holmes, David, & Hywel Morgan. (2010). Single Cell Impedance Cytometry for Identification and Counting of CD4 T-Cells in Human Blood Using Impedance Labels. Analytical Chemistry, 82(4), 1455–61.
- Lu, Xinyu, Chao Liu, Guoqing Hu, & Xiangchun Xuan. (2017). Particle Manipulations in Non-Newtonian Microfluidics: A Review. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 500 (August). Academic Press: 182–201.
- Mezger, T.G. 2014. The Rheology Handbook. Vincentz Network, 4th edition
- Romeo, Giovanni, Gaetano D’Avino, Francesco Greco, Paolo A. Netti, & Pier Luca Maffettone. (2013). Viscoelastic Flow-Focusing in Microchannels: Scaling Properties of the Particle Radial Distributions. Lab on a Chip, 13(14), 2802.
- Schauer, Thadeus. (1995). Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Flow Field-Flow Fractionation for Particle Size Determination. Particle & Particle Systems Characterization, 12(6), 284–88.
- Serhatlioglu, Murat, Mohammad Asghari, Mustafa Tahsin Guler, & Caglar Elbuken. (2019). Impedance-Based Viscoelastic Flow Cytometry. Electrophoresis, January.