Stiffness Dependent Separation of Cells in a Microfluidic Device
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Abnormal cell mechanical stiffness can point to the development of various diseases including cancers and infections. We report a new microfluidic technique for continuous cell separation utilizing variation in cell stiffness. We use a microfluidic channel decorated by periodic diagonal ridges that compress the flowing cells in rapid succession. The compression in combination with secondary flows in the ridged microfluidic channel translates each cell perpendicular to the channel axis in proportion to its stiffness. We demonstrate the physical principle of the cell sorting mechanism and show that our microfluidic approach can be effectively used to separate a variety of cell types which are similar in size but of different stiffnesses, spanning a range from 210 Pa to 23 kPa. Atomic force microscopy is used to directly measure the stiffness of the separated cells and we found that the trajectories in the microchannel correlated to stiffness. We have demonstrated that the current processing throughput is 250 cells per second. This microfluidic separation technique opens new ways for conducting rapid and low-cost cell analysis and disease diagnostics through biophysical markers.Keywords:
Microchannel
Cell Sorting
Microchannel is not only a channel for fluid flowing,but also a tool for microfluid flow control. By incorporating the characteristics and feature of the microchannel,microfluid driving,sampling,mixing, separating droplets formatting and controlling have been realized.In recent years,most studies have been focused on the application of surface effects to achieve microfluid control,as the surface-to-volume ratio is nearly millionfold increased in microchannel relative to that in macrochannel and the surface effects are greatly increased in microfluidic flows.However,only a few studies were carried out on controlling microfluid flows by using microchannel structural characteristics.In order to illuminate the fact that the microchannel configuration is also an effective way to control microfluid flow behavior,this paper discusses two aspects of flow control based on microchannel configuration.One is a special configuration of microchanels to be used as microvalve,the other is a special microchannel configuration to be used for formatting and controlling tiny droplets.And thus microchannel configuration is shown to be able to play an important part in microfluidic control.
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Flow Control
Disk formatting
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In this research work, author has presented a short review on nanofluidics. Total three individual microchannel bends as microfluidic devices are designed, fabricated and tested in this experimental work using author’s own hands-on completely. Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) is the selected polymeric material to fabricate these microfluidic devices. Dyed water is prepared as working liquid to test these microfluidic devices. According to this experimental study, the surface-driven microfluidic flow of dyed water is faster in the microchannel of higher channel aspect ratio inside the microchannel bends. The surface-driven microfluidic flow of dyed water is faster due to the effect of centrifugal force inside the microchannel bends. This experimental work may be useful to develop the nanofluidic devices and systems in future by an experimental transition from microfluidics to nanofluidics.
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Nanofluidics
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Microreactor
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A model of non-uniform cross-section microchannels for realizing flow uniformity is developed in this work. For easy fabrication of microchannels, only the microchannel widths are changed while the thicknesses remain unchangeable in this model, and the relation of the widths of two adjacent microchannels has been established. A specific case is illustrated to study the influence of structural parameters on the microchannel widths. Result indicates that almost all the microchannel widths have symmetrical distribution. The maximum value appears near the edge while the minimum value in the middle microchannel. For all the structural parameters, the rake angle of manifold has a considerable effect on the microchannel width, and the preset value of microchannel width shows a slight influence.
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Rake
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Hydraulic diameter
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Using a standing wave field of ultrasound, it is possible to trap and manipulate small objects at nodes of a sound pressure distribution. In the present paper, a sound wave was generated by a transducer far from a microchannel, and propagated into a microchannel on a glass plate, where it generated a standing wave field. When the liquid water containing alumina particles was injected into the microchannel, the particles flowed along several layers in the flat microchannel. It was shown that the traveling wave was transmitted into the microchannel and the standing wave field was formed in the microchannel. When a half circular space and a branched microchannel were added in the center of the microchannel and the frequency of the ultrasound swept, the exit channel of the particle flow can be selected.
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Microchannel plate detector
Standing wave
Particle (ecology)
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Abstract To probe into the flow and aggregation behaviors of thermo‐responsive microspheres in microchannel during the phase transition, the flow characteristics of monodisperse poly( n ‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microspheres in microchannel with local heating are investigated systematically. When the fluid temperature in the microchannel increases across the lower critical solution temperature (LCST), the PNIPAM microspheres finish the phase transition within 10 s and are easily get aggregated during the phase transition. The diameter ratio of microsphere to microchannel, number of microspheres, initial distance between microspheres, and flow direction of fluid in microchannel, are key parameters affecting the flow and aggregation behaviors of the microspheres in microchannel during the phase transition. If a proper combination of these parameters is designed, the microspheres can aggregate together during the phase transition and stop automatically at a desired position in the microchannel by local heating, which is what the targeting drug delivery system expected. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2009
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Dispersity
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Preconcentration microfluidic devices are fabricated incorporating straight or convergent–divergent microchannels and hydrogel or N afion membranes. Sample preconcentration is achieved utilizing concentration–polarization effects. The effects of the microchannel geometry on the preconcentration intensity are systematically examined. It is shown that for the preconcentrator with the straight microchannel, the time required to achieve a satisfactory preconcentration intensity increases with an increasing channel depth. For the convergent–divergent microchannel, the preconcentration intensity increases with a reducing convergent channel width. Comparing the preconcentration performance of the two different microchannel configurations, it is found that for an equivalent width of the main microchannel, the concentration effect in the convergent–divergent microchannel is faster than that in the straight microchannel.
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Microchannel plate detector
Concentration polarization
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Cylindrical droplet formation in a W/O (water in oil) system of microchannel was analyzed experimentally and theoretically. The microchannel shape was modified to generate smaller droplet based on theoretical model. Numerical and experimental investigations were carried out with the novel microchannel. It is found that generated droplet was almost the spherical shape, since the diameter was smaller enough than the depth of microchannel. The results indicated that 3-dimensional and more precise theoretical model should be applied to realize the smaller droplet generation.
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Oil droplet
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This article investigates fluid distribution in multichannel microfluidic devices with U-shaped manifolds. The parameters investigated include Reynolds number, microchannel width, microchannel spacing width, and microchannel length. The study is carried out using a microfluidic device having 50 microchannels employing water as the working fluid. The flow distribution in the microfluidic device is investigated for microchannel widths between 100 µm to 500 µm and for Reynolds number ranging between 0.04 to 100. The effect of channel spacing width on flow distribution is investigated for microchannel spacing widths between 100 µm to 500 µm. The increase in Reynolds number affects the flow distribution by increasing the non-uniformity of the flow. It is found that increasing the microchannel width causes more non-uniformity in the flow. It is also found that increasing the microchannel spacing width decreased the non-uniformity of the flow distribution. It is found that increasing the channel width from 100 µm to 300 µm increased the flow maldistribution by 83%, and increasing the microchannel spacing width from 100 µm to 300 µm decreased the flow maldistribution by 42%. It is observed that the microchannel width has a stronger influence on the flow distribution compared with microchannel spacing width. The study is useful for examining the flow maldistribution in microfluidic devices as their performance is dependent on flow rate.
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Hydraulic diameter
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