A microfabricated electrical differential counter for the selective enumeration of CD4+ T lymphocytes

Lab Chip. 2011 Apr 21;11(8):1437-47. doi: 10.1039/c0lc00556h. Epub 2011 Feb 1.

Abstract

We have developed a microfabricated biochip that enumerates CD4+ T lymphocytes from leukocyte populations obtained from human blood samples using electrical impedance sensing and immunoaffinity chromatography. T cell counts are found by obtaining the difference between the number of leukocytes before and after depleting CD4+ T cells with immobilized antibodies in a capture chamber. This differential counting technique has been validated to analyze physiological concentrations of leukocytes with an accuracy of ∼9 cells per µL by passivating the capture chamber with bovine serum albumin. In addition, the counter provided T cell counts which correlated closely with an optical control (R(2) = 0.997) for CD4 cell concentrations ranging from approximately 100 to 700 cells per µL. We believe that this approach can be a promising method for bringing quantitative HIV/AIDS diagnostics to resource-poor regions in the world.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / cytology*
  • Cattle
  • Cell Count / instrumentation
  • Cell Count / methods*
  • Cell Extracts
  • Cell Separation
  • Chromatography
  • Electric Impedance
  • Erythrocytes / cytology
  • Humans
  • Microtechnology / instrumentation
  • Microtechnology / methods*
  • Optical Phenomena
  • Reproducibility of Results

Substances

  • Cell Extracts