A Microfluidic Platform for High-throughput Single-cell Isolation and Culture

J Vis Exp. 2016 Jun 16:(112):54105. doi: 10.3791/54105.

Abstract

Studying the heterogeneity of single cells is crucial for many biological questions, but is technically difficult. Thus, there is a need for a simple, yet high-throughput, method to perform single-cell culture experiments. Here, we report a microfluidic chip-based strategy for high-efficiency single-cell isolation (~77%) and demonstrate its capability of performing long-term single-cell culture (up to 7 d) and cellular heterogeneity analysis using clonogenic assay. These applications were demonstrated with KT98 mouse neural stem cells, and A549 and MDA-MB-435 human cancer cells. High single-cell isolation efficiency and long-term culture capability are achieved by using different sizes of microwells on the top and bottom of the microfluidic channel. The small microwell array is designed for precisely isolating single-cells, and the large microwell array is used for single-cell clonal culture in the microfluidic chip. This microfluidic platform constitutes an attractive approach for single-cell culture applications, due to its flexibility of adjustable cell culture spaces for different culture strategies, without decreasing isolation efficiency.

Publication types

  • Video-Audio Media

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Culture Techniques
  • Cell Separation
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques*
  • Microfluidics
  • Neural Stem Cells