High-purity isolation of rare single cells from blood using a tiered microchip system

PLoS One. 2020 Mar 17;15(3):e0229949. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229949. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

We present a two-tiered microchip system to capture and retrieve rare cells from blood samples with high purity. The first module of the system is a high throughput microfluidic interface that is used to immunomagnetically isolate targeted rare cells from whole blood, and discard > 99.999% of the unwanted leukocytes. The second module is a microwell array that furthers the purification by magnetically guiding each cell into a separate well concurrently, and allows individual retrieval of each cell. We demonstrate the design of the system as well as its characterization by experiments using model cell lines that represent circulating fetal trophoblasts. Our results show that single cells can be retrieved with efficiencies and purities as high as 100% within 145 mins.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Separation*
  • Humans
  • Leukocytes / cytology
  • Microarray Analysis
  • Microchip Analytical Procedures*
  • Microfluidics / methods
  • Neoplasms / blood*
  • Neoplasms / pathology
  • Single-Cell Analysis*
  • Trophoblasts / cytology

Grants and funding

CAS: National Science Foundation (Award 1509097), https://www.nsf.gov Donations from McKinley Educational Foundation, and Tom Hurvis. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.