Flow Characteristics During the Passing Process of Circulating Tumor Cells Through a Microfluidic Channel

Abstract

Circulating tumor cell (CTC) unfolds an enormous opportunity for precise information about the cancer type and growth. The key challenge is to separate CTCs from blood because of its extreme rarity. Among the existing processes, size and deformation-based separation process offers the best way to isolate cells in a label-free way. The numerical computation gives the opportunity to understand the deformation behavior of CTC and subsequent pressure signature during the flow process over the experimental techniques. In the present study, pressure characteristics are studied for three types of cancer cell considering the surface tension and the viscous property of the cell. Cervical cancer cell shows more resistance during the cell deformation process over the ENB and the brain cancer cell, respectively. Critical and viscous pressure drop pattern with the increase in flow rates is also investigated. A comparison of pressure signature and cell deformation characteristics is made between high and low viscous cervical cancer cells. It is found that critical pressure of highly viscous cell rises significantly due to high shear stress compared to the less viscous cell during the cell passing process. This study provides some important insights into the cell passing process inside the microchannel to design the next-generation CTC microfluidic-based chip.