title: Rhipsalis (Cactaceae)-like Hierarchical Structure Based Microfluidic Chip for Highly Efficient Isolation of Rare Cancer Cells.
abstract: The circulating tumor cells (CTCs), originating from the primary tumor, play a vital role in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, disease monitoring, and precise therapy. However, the CTCs are extremely rare in the peripheral bloodstream and hard to be isolated. To overcome current limitations associated with CTC capture and analysis, the strategy incorporating nanostructures with microfluidic devices receives wide attention. Here, we demonstrated a three-dimensional microfluidic device (Rm-chip) for capturing cancer cells with high efficiency by integrating a novel hierarchical structure, the "Rhipsalis (Cactaceae)"-like micropillar array, into the Rm-chip. The PDMS micropillar array was fabricated by soft-lithography and rapid prototyping method, which was then conformally plated with a thin gold layer through electroless plating. EpCAM antibody was modified onto the surface of the micropillars through the thiol-oligonucleotide linkers in order to release captured cancer cells by DNase I treatment. The antibody-functionalized device achieved an average capture efficiency of 88% in PBS and 83.7% in whole blood samples. We believe the Rm-chip provided a convenient, economical, and versatile approach for cell analysis with wide potential applications.
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics of MOE at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics - Hubei Bioinformatics & Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory, Systems Biology Theme, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Shuangqian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics of MOE at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics - Hubei Bioinformatics & Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory, Systems Biology Theme, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Xian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Cancer Center, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Xiaofang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics of MOE at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics - Hubei Bioinformatics & Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory, Systems Biology Theme, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics of MOE at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics - Hubei Bioinformatics & Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory, Systems Biology Theme, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics of MOE at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics - Hubei Bioinformatics & Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory, Systems Biology Theme, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Bi-Feng
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D029421:Cactaceae; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002469:Cell Separation; D006801:Humans; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; D044085:Microfluidics; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating
keywords: electroless plating; hierarchical structure; micropillar array; rare cancer cell; three-dimensional capture