Cellular dielectrophoresis: Applications to the characterization, manipulation, separation and patterning of cells

Abstract

Over the past decade, dielectrophoresis (DEP) has evolved into a powerful, robust and flexible method for cellular characterization, manipulation, separation and cell patterning. It is a field with widely varying disciplines, as it is quite common to see DEP integrated with a host of applications including microfluidics, impedance spectroscopy, tissue engineering, real-time PCR, immunoassays, stem-cell characterization, gene transfection and electroporation, just to name a few. The field is finally at the point where analytical and numerical polarization models can be used to adequately describe and characterize the dielectrophoretic behavior of cells, and there is ever increasing evidence demonstrating that electric fields can safely be used to manipulate cells without harm. As such, DEP is slowly making its way into the biological sciences. Today, DEP is being used to manipulate individual cells to specific regions of space for single-cell assays. DEP is able to separate rare cells from a heterogeneous cell suspension, where isolated cells can then be characterized and dynamically studied using nothing more than electric fields. However, there is need for a critical report to integrate the many new features of DEP for cellular applications. Here, a review of the basic theory and current applications of DEP, specifically for cells, is presented.

Tuning direct current streaming dielectrophoresis of proteins

“…Note that Eq. (2) indicates that the Clausius-Mossotti factor is negative when the particle conductivity is lower than that of the medium.…”

“…Concomitantly, DEP has the potential to provide high molecular specificity. 1,2 Two major techniques are commonly used to produce electric field gradients for DEP manipulations. The first approach includes microstructured electrodes, 3 often embedded in microfluidic channels.…”

Estimation of the physical properties of neurons and glial cells using dielectrophoresis crossover frequency

“…Dielectrophoresis (DEP), as a label-free and flexible tool, has been widely used to characterize the electrical properties of not only the cell membrane but also the cell interior [15][16][17]. The ability to determine cell dielectric properties with DEP has been demonstrated previously by several research groups, such as Mahaworasilpa et al [18], where a dielectrophoretic (DEP) force on single cells in AC electric fields was measured to analyze cell movement.…”

“…The ability to determine cell dielectric properties with DEP has been demonstrated previously by several research groups, such as Mahaworasilpa et al [18], where a dielectrophoretic (DEP) force on single cells in AC electric fields was measured to analyze cell movement. In addition, the measurement of DEP crossover frequency (CF), namely the frequency occurring on the transition between positive DEP (cells attracted to the maximum electric field area) and negative DEP (cells repelled to the minimum electric field area), has been extensively applied by Pethig et al [12,17], Gascoyne et al [19,20], Voldman et al [21,22] and Gagnon et al [15,23], to characterize and separate multiple cell types.…”

Controllable alignment of elongated microorganisms in 3D microspace using electrofluidic devices manufactured by hybrid femtosecond laser microfabrication

“…Thus, it enables a broad range of lab-on-a-chip applications in biological and medical research [11][12][13][14][15][16] . Among the many electromanipulation methods, electro-orientation offers a reproducible and nondestructive way of aligning elongated (asymmetric or non-spherical) cells/particles immersed in a solution of different permittivity using an electric field.…”