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. 2017 Feb 24;2(2):290-299.
doi: 10.1021/acssensors.6b00823. Epub 2017 Feb 10.

Single-Cell Mechanical Characteristics Analyzed by Multiconstriction Microfluidic Channels

Xiang Ren  1 , Parham Ghassemi  1 , Hesam Babahosseini  1 , Jeannine S Strobl  1 , Masoud Agah  1
Affiliations

Single-Cell Mechanical Characteristics Analyzed by Multiconstriction Microfluidic Channels

Xiang Ren et al. ACS Sens. .

Abstract

A microfluidic device composed of variable numbers of multiconstriction channels is reported in this paper to differentiate a human breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231, and a nontumorigenic human breast cell line, MCF-10A. Differences between their mechanical properties were assessed by comparing the effect of single or multiple relaxations on their velocity profiles which is a novel measure of their deformation ability. Videos of the cells were recorded via a microscope using a smartphone, and imported to a tracking software to gain the position information on the cells. Our results indicated that a multiconstriction channel design with five deformation (50 μm in length, 10 μm in width, and 8 μm in height) separated by four relaxation (50 μm in length, 40 μm in width, and 30 μm in height) regions was superior to a single deformation design in differentiating MDA-MB-231 and MCF-10A cells. Velocity profile criteria can achieve a differentiation accuracy around 95% for both MDA-MB-231 and MCF-10A cells.

Keywords: breast cancer cells; microfluidic cell separation; multiconstriction channel; particle tracking; smartphone imaging; velocity profiles; video/image processing.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
MDA-MB-231 and MCF-10A cell size distribution; cell image before trypsinization.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Microfluidic device fabrication processes and experimental setup.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Defining the velocity regions in three channel configurations using segments (1)–(10). (b) Velocity and (c) velocity increments of MDA-MB-231 cells and MCF-10A cells in three different microfluidic channels.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Scatter plot of MDA-MB-231 cells and MCF-10A cells velocity increments of comparing ε10,2 to ε9,2, ε8,2, ε6,2, and ε4,2 in channel 1 (a), channel 2 (c), and channel 3 (e); and comparing ε9,1 to ε8,1, ε7,1, ε5,1, and ε3,1 in channel 1 (b), channel 2 (d), and channel 3 (f).
Figure 5
Figure 5
ROC curve of the cancer cells (CA) and normal cells (NR) in channel 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Scatter plot of using criterion II (a), criterion III (b), and combining criteria II and III (c) to differentiate MDA-MB-231 cells and MCF-10A cells in channel 3.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Differentiation rate of cancer cells (CA) and normal cells (NR) in channel 3 using different velocity analysis criteria.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Differentiation ratio of cancer cells (CA) and normal cells (NR) using four blind-testing samples (s1, s2, s3, and s4) in channel 3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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