title: A microfluidic approach towards hybridoma generation for cancer immunotherapy.
abstract: Dendritic cells/tumor fusions have shown to elicit anti-cancer immunity in different cancer types. However, the application of these vaccines for human cancer immunotherapy are limited by the instable quality and insufficient quanity of fusion cells. We present a cell electrofusion chip fabricated using soft lithography technique, which combines the rapid and precise cell pairing microstructures and the high yield electrofusion micro-electrodes to improve the cell fusion. The design uses hydrodynamic trapping in combination with positive dielectrophoretic force (pDEP) to achieve cell fusion. The chip consists of total 960 pairs of trapping channels, which are capable of pairing and fusing both homogeneous and heterogeneous types of cells. The fused cells can be easily taken out of the chip that makes this device a distinguishable from other designs. We observe pairing efficiency of 68% with fusion efficiency of 64%.
authors.affiliation: Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.|Department of Medicine, Mackay Medical College, New Taipei City, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: Yen-Ta
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Power Mechanical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: Gaurav Prashant
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Pendharkar
authors.affiliation: Department of Power Mechanical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: Chung-Huan
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Research, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chia-Ming
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Power Mechanical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: Cheng-Hsien
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002459:Cell Fusion / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D006801:Humans; D006825:Hybridomas / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D007948:Leukemia, Monocytic, Acute / Q000473:pathology; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D008839:Microelectrodes; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
keywords: LabChip; cell electrofusion; dielectrophoresis; hydrodynamic trapping; immunotherapy