Antibody-coated microstructures for selective isolation of immune cells in blood

• Published in: Lab on a chip Vol. 20; no. 6; pp. 1072 - 1082
• Main Authors: Li, Jiyu, Liu, Ya, Ren, Jifeng, Tay, Benjamin Zikai, Luo, Tao, Fan, Lei, Sun, Dong, Luo, Guannan, Lau, Denvid, Marcos, Lam, Raymond H W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 17.03.2020
• Subjects: Animals; Antibodies; Antigens; Blood; Cattle; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Separation; Cell Survival; Diagnosis; Humans; Immune system; Leukemia; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; Purity; Sieves
• ISSN: 1473-0197; 1473-0189
• DOI: 10.1039/d0lc00078g

Cell isolation from blood is an important process for diagnosing immune diseases. There are still demands for a user-friendly approach to achieve high cell extraction efficiency and purity of a target immune cell subtype for more promising diagnosis and monitoring. For selective immune cell isolation, we developed a microstructured device, which consists of antibody-coated micropillars and micro-sieve arrays, for isolating a target immune cell subtype from bovine blood samples. The focusing micropillars can guide immune cells flowing to the subsequent micro-sieves based on deterministic lateral shifts of the cells. The arrangement of these microstructures is characterized and configured for the maximal cell capture rate. Surface modification with a selected antibody offers selective cell capture in the micro-sieves based on the antigen-antibody reaction. We prepare a cell mixture of human CD14-expressing leukemia cells (THP-1) and epithelial cells (MDA-MB-231) in diluted blood to characterize the cell isolation operation, with a selective cell isolation yield of >80%, cell purity of ∼100% and cell viability of >93%. Together, this microstructured device strategy can achieve high-yield selective isolation of immune cells from blood samples and support downstream genetic and biochemical cell analyses, contributing to the medical diagnosis of a broad range of immune diseases.