Rapid Formation of Aggregates with Uniform Numbers of Cells Based on Three-dimensional Dielectrophoresis

Abstract

We applied a fabrication method for the formation of island organization of cells based on a three-dimensional (3D) device for negative dielectrophoresis (n-DEP) to produce cell aggregates with uniform numbers of cells rapidly and simply. The intersections formed by rotating the interdigitated array (IDA) with two combs of band electrodes on the upper substrate by 90 relative to the IDA with two combs on the lower substrate were prepared in the device. The AC voltage was applied to a comb on the upper substrate and a comb on the lower substrate, while AC voltage with opposite phase was applied to another comb on the upper substrate and another comb on the lower substrate. Cells dispersed randomly were directed toward the intersections with relatively lower electric fields due to n-DEP, which formed by AC voltage applied bands with the identical phase, resulting in the formation of island patterns of cells. The cells accumulated at intersections were promoted to form the cell aggregates due to the close contact together. The production of cell aggregations adhered together was easily found by the dispersion behavior after switching the applied frequency to convert the cellular pattern. When cells were accumulated at the intersections by n-DEP for 45 min, almost accumulations of cells were adhered together, and hence a formations of cell aggregations. By using the present method, we can rapidly and simply fabricate cell aggregations with a uniform number of cells.

Microfluidic Separation of Blood Cells Based on the Negative Dielectrophoresis Operated by Three Dimensional Microband Electrodes

“…We previously reported the capture of cells in microwells with p-DEP [ 36 , 37 ] and the formation of cell aggregates by gathering cells with n-DEP [ 5 ]. Cells maintained the esterase activity and proliferation after cells were trapped in microwells to be exposed to the relatively strong electric field.…”

“…Dielectrophoresis (DEP) has been used to detect bacteria [ 1 ], measure the electric properties of cells [ 2 , 3 ], and to form cell patterns [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ] to apply to biomedical sciences [ 9 ]. Additionally, it has been especially studied as an external force for separating cells in microfluidic devices [ 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”

Dynamically controlled dielectrophoresis using resonant tuning

“…So, a lot of fundamental studies have been directed toward the dielectrophoresis driven motion of electrically polarizable suspended samples taking into account the contribution of other relevant hydrodynamic and electrohydrodynamic effects [8][9][10][11]. At the same time, many strategies involving dielectrophoresis have emerged for the trapping [7,[12][13][14][15][16][17], manipulation [7,[18][19][20][21], focusing [7,[22][23][24][25], sorting and separation [7,13,18,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] , enrichment [7,13,21,31,40,41], aggregation [42,43], assembly [44,45], detection…”

Electrorotation Rates of K562 Cells Accompanied by Erythroid Differentiation Induced by Sodium Butyrate

“…Furthermore, we fabricated the novel ROT device with the microwell on polynomial electrodes. The use of this device allows to trap the target cells in the microwell by the attractive force of positive dielectrophoresis (p-DEP) 20 , and remove the trapped cells by the repulsive force of negative dielectrophoresis (n-DEP) 21,22 after determining the ROT rate. The trapped cells remained in the microwells even when the main channel is disturbed by the slight fluidic flow.…”