Microfluidic point-of-care blood panel based on a novel technique: Reversible electroosmotic flow

Abstract

A wide range of diseases and conditions are monitored or diagnosed from blood plasma, but the ability to analyze a whole blood sample with the requirements for a point-of-care device, such as robustness, user-friendliness, and simple handling, remains unmet. Microfluidics technology offers the possibility not only to work fresh thumb-pricked whole blood but also to maximize the amount of the obtained plasma from the initial sample and therefore the possibility to implement multiple tests in a single cartridge. The microfluidic design presented in this paper is a combination of cross-flow filtration with a reversible electroosmotic flow that prevents clogging at the filter entrance and maximizes the amount of separated plasma. The main advantage of this design is its efficiency, since from a small amount of sample (a single droplet $10 ll) almost 10% of this (approx 1 ll) is extracted and collected with high purity (more than 99%) in a reasonable time (5-8 min). To validate the quality and quantity of the separated plasma and to show its potential as a clinical tool, the microfluidic chip has been combined with lateral flow immunochromatography technology to perform a qualitative detection of the thyroid-stimulating hormone and a blood panel for measuring cardiac Troponin and Creatine Kinase MB. The results from the microfluidic system are comparable to previous commercial lateral flow assays that required more sample for implementing fewer tests. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx

Recent advances in direct current electrokinetic manipulation of particles for microfluidic applications

“…In addition, Mohammadi et al. reported interesting studies on DC electrokinetics‐based blood plasma separation in straight microchannels with varying cross sections.…”

“…11E) [167] and blood cells from biomarkers [168] as well as nano to submicron particles [169], and so on. In addition, Mohammadi et al [170,171] reported interesting studies on DC electrokinetics-based blood plasma separation in straight microchannels with varying cross sections.…”

Filter‐based isolation, enrichment, and characterization of circulating tumor cells

“…Techniques using CTCs’ affinity, biophysical properties, microarray traps, and direct imaging have been developed and compiled extensively to separate, quantify and study CTCs (Ferreira, Ramani, & Jeffrey, ; Green et al, ; Hyun, Kim, Gwak, & Jung, ; Qian, Zhang, & Chen, ). Several types of CTC filters have been developed including those which utilize the principle of capturing based on antibody affinity for the EpCAM on the CTC surface (Cen, Ni, Yang, Graham, & Li, ), dielectric property of cancerous cells (Mohammadi, Madadi, Casals‐Terré, & Sellarès, ; Mohammadi, Zare, Madadi, Sellarès, & Casals‐Terré, ; Safavieh et al, ), separation based on the size difference between CTC and blood cells (Zheng et al, ), indirect isolation of CTC by separating non‐CTC cells (Madadi, Casals‐Terré, & Mohammadi, ; Mohammadi, Madadi, & Casals‐Terré, ; Ozkumur et al, ), and magnetic beads‐based capturing of cancer cells (Issadore et al, ). Yet, only a handful of these have reached the commercialization stage (Andree, van Dalum, & Terstappen, ; Cen et al, ; Gabriel, Calleja, Chalopin, Ory, & Heymann, ; L. Wang et al, ).…”

Microfluidic platform for separation and extraction of plasma from whole blood using dielectrophoresis

“…More recently, blood plasma has been extracted from diluted blood in a cross flow filter based device employing an active reversible electro-osmotic flow based unblocking technique. 22 This technique enables active pulsatile unblocking of the filter entrance and significantly improves efficiency of the cross flow filter.…”