A microflow cytometer exploited for the immunological differentiation of leukocytes

Abstract

In this article, we demonstrate the potential of a microfluidic chip for the differentiation of immunologically stained blood cells. To this end, white blood cells stained with antibodies typically applied for the determination of the immune status were measured in the micro-device. Relative concentrations of lymphocytes and subpopulations of lymphocytes are compared to those obtained with a conventional flow cytometer. The stability of the hydrodynamic focusing and the optical setup was determined by measuring the variation of the signal pulse height of fluorescence calibration beads, being about 2% for the micro-device. This value and the overall performance of the microdevice are similar to conventional flow cytometers. It follows from our results that such microfluidic structures are well suited as modules in a compact, portable read-out instrument. The production process of the microflow cytometers, which we exploited for immunological cell differentiation, is compatible with mass production technology like injection molding and, hence, low cost disposable chips could be available in the future. '

Pathogen-Specific Local Immune Fingerprints Diagnose Bacterial Infection in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients

“…Although cellular analyses typically require trained laboratory staff and central equipment such as flow cytometers, recent advances in microfluidics have made the development of accurate and affordable single-use chip devices a realistic option. [42][43][44] This promising technological progress is likely to allow routine monitoring of complex immune fingerprints in infected patients in the near future, suggesting that rapid differential biomarker-based diagnosis and guided management of noninfectious and infectious syndromes at the point of care are feasible.…”

Simultaneous optical and impedance analysis of single cells: A comparison of two microfluidic sensors with sheath flow focusing

“…the CV (about 3%) obtained for microdevices exploiting 2D-focusing [18,19] cytometer. It follows that the choice of the material is essential for high sensitivity detection of dimly fluorescent particles.…”

“…Histogram data obtained with µFCM-SU8 and µFCM-glass are compared with routine CyFlow Space flow cytometer and our microfluidic device exploiting cascade 2D-focusing (µFCM-cascade) [17][18][19] (Fig. 3).…”

3D cell feature measurement with a diffraction imaging method

“…So it is highly desired to develop a method of rapid analysis of single cells according to their 3D morphological features. However, conventional flow cytometer which relies on angularly integrated fluorescent signals could not extract abundant morphological information for cell analysis [5].…”