AI Article Synopsis
- The separation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood is crucial for cancer diagnostics, but existing methods are limited due to tumor diversity.
- A new slanted weir microfluidic device effectively separates CTCs based on their size and flexibility, achieving a 97% separation efficiency while significantly reducing red and white blood cell counts.
- An image analysis tool was also developed to analyze different cell shapes and deformability, suggesting that this system could greatly enhance liquid biopsies for cancer research.
Article Abstract
The separation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from the peripheral blood is an important issue that has been highlighted because of their high clinical potential. However, techniques that depend solely on tumor-specific surface molecules or just the larger size of CTCs are limited by tumor heterogeneity. Here, we present a slanted weir microfluidic device that utilizes the size and deformability of CTCs to separate them from the unprocessed whole blood. By testing its ability using a highly invasive breast cancer cell line, our device achieved a 97% separation efficiency, while showing an 8-log depletion of erythrocytes and 5.6-log depletion of leukocytes. We also developed an image analysis tool that was able to characterize the various morphologies and differing deformability of the separating cells. From the results, we believe our system possesses a high potential for liquid biopsy, aiding future cancer research.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406949 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers11020200 | DOI Listing |
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