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Isolation and retrieval of circulating tumor cells on a microchip with double parallel layers of herringbone structure

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Abstract

Isolation of the extremely rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from peripheral blood has become an effective tool for monitoring and staging tumor development, based on which the therapeutic efficacy can be evaluated. Many techniques have been developed for CTC isolation and enumeration. However, isolation and detection of CTCs with high sensitivity remains a challenging work, and there still exists an urgent demand to retrieve tumor cells after isolation for further molecular and cellular analyses. Herein, we report a dual-functional microchip with double parallel layers of herringbone structure. CTC isolation and retrieving can be simply achieved based on the reversible conjugation with anti-EpCAM modified on the interior channel surface. Specifically, two major strategies were engaged to improve the CTC isolation based on the synergistic effect of significantly increased functional surface area and local microvortex mixing. This approach could achieve CTC isolation efficiency of 75% on average and the detection limit down to 10 cells mL−1. Furthermore, CTC retrieving rate was found at 73.4%. Therefore, the present method has a good potential for quantitation and retrieving CTCs with high efficiency for precise cancer diagnosis and subsequent cellular and molecular analyses.

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Acknowledgement

P. X. is grateful to the start-up Grant from Southwest University (SWU116032). Y. K. acknowledges the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SWU115059, SWU115058, XDJK2016C004, and XDJK2016A010).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Faculty of Materials and Energy, Institute for Clean Energy and Advanced Materials, Southwest University, 2 Tiansheng Road, Chongqing, 400715, People’s Republic of China

      Peng Xue, Zhigang Xu & Yuejun Kang

    2. School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 62 Nanyang Drive, Singapore, 637459, Singapore

      Lei Zhang

    3. University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 2006 Xiyuan Ave, Chengdu, 611371, People’s Republic of China

      Jinhong Guo

    4. Microfluidic POCT Research and Development Centre, Sichuan LaYa Micro Technology Co. Ltd., Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China

      Jinhong Guo

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    1. Peng Xue
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    2. Lei Zhang
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    3. Jinhong Guo
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    4. Zhigang Xu
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    5. Yuejun Kang
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    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to Yuejun Kang.

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    Peng Xue and Lei Zhang have contributed equally to this work.

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    Xue, P., Zhang, L., Guo, J. et al. Isolation and retrieval of circulating tumor cells on a microchip with double parallel layers of herringbone structure. Microfluid Nanofluid 20, 169 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-016-1834-y

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