Cell separation by the combination of microfluidics and optical trapping force on a microchip.
We investigated properties of cells affecting their optical trapping force and successfully established a novel cell separation method based on the combined use of optical trapping force and microfluidics on a microchip. Our investigations reveal that the morphology, size, light absorption, and refractive index of cells are important factors affecting their optical trapping force. A sheath flow of sample solutions created in a microchip made sample cells flow in a narrow linear stream and an optical trap created by a highly focused laser beam captured only target cells and altered their trajectory, resulting in high-efficiency cell separation. An optimum balance between optical trapping force and sample flow rate was essential to achieve high cell separation efficiency. Our investigations clearly indicate that the on-chip optical trapping method allows high-efficiency cell separation without cumbersome and time-consuming cell pretreatments. In addition, our on-chip optical trapping method requires small amounts of sample and may permit high-throughput cell separation and integration of other functions on microchips.
Murata
Masaya
M
Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan.
Okamoto
Yukihiro
Y
Park
Yeon-Su
YS
Kaji
Noritada
N
Tokeshi
Manabu
M
Baba
Yoshinobu
Y
D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D046208:Microchip Analytical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods*; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results