Slanted, asymmetric microfluidic lattices as size-selective sieves for continuous particle/cell sorting

Abstract

Hydrodynamic microfluidic platforms have been proven to be useful and versatile for precisely sorting particles/cells based on their physicochemical properties. In this study, we demonstrate that a simple lattice-shaped microfluidic pattern can work as a virtual sieve for size-dependent continuous particle sorting. The lattice is composed of two types of microchannels ("main channels" and "separation channels"). These channels cross each other in a perpendicular fashion, and are slanted against the macroscopic flow direction. The difference in the densities of these channels generates an asymmetric flow distribution at each intersection. Smaller particles flow along the streamline, whereas larger particles are filtered and gradually separated from the stream, resulting in continuous particle sorting. We successfully sorted microparticles based on size with high accuracy, and clearly showed that geometric parameters, including the channel density and the slant angle, critically affect the sorting behaviors of particles. Leukocyte sorting and monocyte purification directly from diluted blood samples have been demonstrated as biomedical applications. The presented system for particle/cell sorting would become a simple but versatile unit operation in microfluidic apparatus for chemical/biological experiments and manipulations.

Thermoresponsive Cationic Block Copolymer Brushes for Temperature‐Modulated Stem Cell Separation

“…Various cell separation methods have been developed. [ 7–13 ] Flow cytometry by labeling cells with fluorescent antibodies or magnetic particles is used as a precise cell separation method. However, cell modification with fluorescent antibodies or magnetic particles may affect the cells’ intrinsic properties and cause unexpected reactions in the human body after transplantation.…”

Separation and Concentration without Clogging Using a High-Throughput Tunable Filter

“…In the search for a clog-free configuration, Yamada and Seki (2005) introduced hydrodynamic filtration in which the flow field was used to control the particle cut-off size instead of the pore size of the filter. Recently, Yamada et al (2017) improved their initial geometry by using slanted channels. Hydrodynamic filters are cheap, parallelizable and have become commercially available e.g.…”

Purification of complex samples: Implementation of a modular and reconfigurable droplet-based microfluidic platform with cascaded deterministic lateral displacement separation modules

“…As a passive and label-free purification technique, DLD has a high potential to address both micrometer- and nanometer-sized biological particles. Examples of applications are the isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood samples [ 1 ][ 2 ][ 3 ][ 4 ][ 5 ], the extraction of white blood cells (WBCs) [ 6 ][ 7 ][ 8 ][ 9 ][ 10 ][ 11 ], the manipulation of red blood cells (RBCs) [ 12 ][ 13 ][ 14 ][ 15 ][ 16 ][ 17 ], the isolation of cells [ 18 ][ 19 ], platelets [ 20 ], fungal spores [ 21 ], bacteria [ 22 ], parasites [ 23 ], and the fractionation of isolated extracellular vesicles into several subpopulations [ 24 ][ 25 ].…”