A Microfluidic Device for Hydrodynamic Trapping and Manipulation Platform of a Single Biological Cell

Abstract

Abstract:To perform specific analysis for the single cell, individual cells have to be captured and separated from each other before further treatments and analysis can be carried out. This paper presents the design, simulation, fabrication, and testing of a microfluidic device for trapping a single cell/particle based on a hydrodynamic technique. A T-channel trapping chip has been proposed to provide single-cell trapping and consequently could be a platform for cell treatments and manipulations. A finite element T-channel trapping model was developed using Abaqus FEA™ software to observe it's trapping ability by optimizing the channel's geometry and Rh Main /Rh Trap ratio. A proof of concept demonstration for cell trapping in the T-channel model was presented in the simulation analysis and experimental work using HUVEC cell aggregate. The T-channel was found to be able to trap a single cell via the hydrodynamic trapping concept using an appropriate channel geometry and Rh Main /Rh Trap ratio. The proposed T-channel single-cell trapping has potential application for single cell characterization and single 3D cell aggregates treatments and analysis.

An on-chip imaging droplet-sorting system: a real-time shape recognition method to screen target cells in droplets with single cell resolution

“…Although hydrodynamic cell trapping or single cell printing systems have been used for single cell isolation and culture, common systems reported in the literature are dedicated to non-motile cells4950515253545556 (SM4). However, flagellate species are commonly found in seawater samples and they can escape hydrodynamic traps.…”

Spheroids-on-a-chip: Recent advances and design considerations in microfluidic platforms for spheroid formation and culture

“…McMillan et al [149] designed a nearly identical device to trap cell-containing alginate droplets instead of spheroids. This mechanism has recently been adapted for single cell trapping by modifying the geometry and fluidic parameters [150].…”

Automatic and Selective Single Cell Manipulation in a Pressure-Driven Microfluidic Lab-On-Chip Device

“…For the various label-free approaches, they normally utilize different forces to, electrically [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ], optically [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], hydraulically [ 27 , 28 , 29 ] or acoustically [ 30 , 31 , 32 ], manipulate the cells one by one. Trapping and positioning a single cell followed by various on-chip biochemical analyses have also been demonstrated recently [ 21 ].…”

“…Only particles with a size smaller than that of the trap can be trapped. Compared with the other methods, hydrodynamic trapping has the unique advantages of simple fabrication and application without using bulky instruments such as lasers, transducers, or signal generators [ 27 ]. The commercially available system C1™ (Fluidigm Corporation, South San Francisco, CA, USA) exemplify the power of this technology.…”

“…The commercially available system C1™ (Fluidigm Corporation, South San Francisco, CA, USA) exemplify the power of this technology. Similar to the dielectrophoresis method, the throughput of this method strongly depends on the number of trapping channels [ 27 ]. For this method, however, neither selective trapping nor controllably releasing a specific cell is allowed.…”