Biocompatible and label-free separation of cancer cells from cell culture lines from white blood cells in ferrofluids.

ABSTRACT: This paper reports a biocompatible and label-free cell separation method using ferrofluids that can separate a variety of low-concentration cancer cells from cell culture lines (∼100 cancer cells per mL) from undiluted white blood cells, with a throughput of 1.2 mL h^-1 and an average separation efficiency of 82.2%. The separation is based on the size difference of the cancer cells and white blood cells, and is conducted in a custom-made biocompatible ferrofluid that retains not only excellent short-term viabilities but also normal proliferations of 7 commonly used cancer cell lines. A microfluidic device is designed and optimized specifically to shorten the time of live cells' exposure to ferrofluids from hours to seconds, by eliminating time-consuming off-chip sample preparatio

SUBMITTER: Zhao W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5543773 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature