title: A Microfluidic Device with Integrated Sonication and Immunoprecipitation for Sensitive Epigenetic Assays.
abstract: Epigenetic studies increasingly require analysis of a small number of cells that are of one specific type and derived from patients or animals. In this report, we demonstrate a simple microfluidic device that integrates sonication and immunoprecipitation (IP) for epigenetic assays, such as chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and methylated DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP). By incorporating an ultrasonic transducer with a microfluidic chamber, we implemented microscale sonication for both shearing chromatin/DNA and mixing/washing of IP beads. Such integration allowed highly sensitive tests starting with 100 cross-linked cells for ChIP or 500 pg of genomic DNA for MeDIP (compared to 10(6)-10(7) cells for ChIP and 1-10 μg of DNA for MeDIP in conventional assays). The entire on-chip process of sonication and IP took only 1 h. Our tool will be useful for highly sensitive epigenetic studies based on a small quantity of sample.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech , Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States.
authors.forename: Zhenning
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Virginia Tech , Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States.
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D019175:DNA Methylation; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D057890:Epigenomics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D047468:Immunoprecipitation; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013010:Sonication; D014465:Ultrasonics
chemical_list: D004247:DNA