Microfluidic self-sorting of mammalian cells to achieve cell cycle synchrony by hydrophoresis.
Cell cycle studies for examining regulatory mechanisms and progression invariably require synchronization of cell cultures at a specific phase of the cell cycle. Current implementations to produce synchronous cell populations, however, tend to perturb normal cellular progression and metabolism and typically require complex, time-consuming preparations. Thus, it is challenging for the development of a simple, noninvasive, and effective means for cell cycle synchronization. We demonstrate the use of hydrophoretic size separation to sort cells in target phases of the cell cycle entirely based on a hydrodynamic principle. With this method, we found that there is a linear relationship between a cell's size and its position distribution in the hydrophoretic device. We also demonstrate the robustness of the hydrophoretic method for practical applications by sorting cells in the G(0)/G(1) and G(2)/M phases out of the original, asynchronous cells with a high level of synchrony of 95.5% and 85.2%, respectively. These results show that the hydrophoretic size separation can be used in order to collect cells at the same phase of the cell cycle in a gentle, noninvasive way.
Choi
Sungyoung
S
Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, College of Life Science and Bioengineering, KAIST, 335 Gwahangno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
Song
Seungjeong
S
Choi
Chulhee
C
Park
Je-Kyun
JK
D000818:Animals; D016466:CHO Cells; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods*; D014709:Vero Cells