title: The removal of human breast cancer cells from hematopoietic CD34+ stem cells by dielectrophoretic field-flow-fractionation.
abstract: Dielectrophoretic field-flow-fractionation (DEP-FFF) was used to purge human breast cancer MDA-435 cells from hematopoietic CD34+ stem cells. An array of interdigitated microelectrodes lining the bottom surface of a thin chamber was used to generate dielectrophoretic forces that levitated the cell mixture in a fluid flow profile. CD34+ stem cells were levitated higher, were carried faster by the fluid flow, and exited the separation chamber earlier than the cancer cells. Using on-line flow cytometry, efficient separation of the cell mixture was observed in less than 12 min, and CD34+ stem cell fractions with a purity >99.2% were obtained. The method of DEP-FFF is potentially applicable to many biomedical cell separation problems, including microfluidic-scale diagnosis and preparative-scale purification of cell subpopulations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: X B
authors.initials: XB
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: F F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Gascoyne
mesh_terms: D016465:Bone Marrow Purging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D004586:Electrophoresis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured