title: Microfluidic cytometric analysis of cancer cell transportability and invasiveness.
abstract: The extensive phenotypic and functional heterogeneity of cancer cells plays an important role in tumor progression and therapeutic resistance. Characterizing this heterogeneity and identifying invasive phenotype may provide possibility to improve chemotherapy treatment. By mimicking cancer cell perfusion through circulatory system in metastasis, we develop a unique microfluidic cytometry (MC) platform to separate cancer cells at high throughput, and further derive a physical parameter 'transportability' to characterize the ability to pass through micro-constrictions. The transportability is determined by cell stiffness and cell-surface frictional property, and can be used to probe tumor heterogeneity, discriminate more invasive phenotypes and correlate with biomarker expressions in breast cancer cells. Decreased cell stiffness and cell-surface frictional force leads to an increase in transportability and may be a feature of invasive cancer cells by promoting cell perfusion through narrow spaces in circulatory system. The MC-Chip provides a promising microfluidic platform for studying cell mechanics and transportability could be used as a novel marker for probing tumor heterogeneity and determining invasive phenotypes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA.|Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Zongbin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Yeonju
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA.|Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Joon hee
authors.initials: Jh
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA.|Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA.|Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yokoi
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA.|Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA.|Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.|Department of General Surgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410008, China.
authors.forename: Ledu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA.|Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.|Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Lidong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002465:Cell Movement; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D008954:Models, Biological; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D010641:Phenotype
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers