Issue 20, 2023

Recent advances in deformation-assisted microfluidic cell sorting technologies

Abstract

Cell sorting is an essential prerequisite for cell research and has great value in life science and clinical studies. Among the many microfluidic cell sorting technologies, label-free methods based on the size of different cell types have been widely studied. However, the heterogeneity in size for cells of the same type and the inevitable size overlap between different types of cells would result in performance degradation in size-based sorting. To tackle such challenges, deformation-assisted technologies are receiving more attention recently. Cell deformability is an inherent biophysical marker of cells that reflects the changes in their internal structures and physiological states. It provides additional dimensional information for cell sorting besides size. Therefore, in this review, we summarize the recent advances in deformation-assisted microfluidic cell sorting technologies. According to how the deformability is characterized and the form in which the force acts, the technologies can be divided into two categories: (1) the indirect category including transit-time-based and image-based methods, and (2) the direct category including microstructure-based and hydrodynamics-based methods. Finally, the separation performance and the application scenarios of each method, the existing challenges and future outlook are discussed. Deformation-assisted microfluidic cell sorting technologies are expected to realize greater potential in the label-free analysis of cells.

Graphical abstract: Recent advances in deformation-assisted microfluidic cell sorting technologies

Article information

Article type
Critical Review
Submitted
08 Maw 2023
Accepted
14 Ndz 2023
First published
15 Ndz 2023

Analyst, 2023,148, 4922-4938

Recent advances in deformation-assisted microfluidic cell sorting technologies

J. Sun, X. Huang, J. Chen, R. Xiang, X. Ke, S. Lin, W. Xuan, S. Liu, Z. Cao and L. Sun, Analyst, 2023, 148, 4922 DOI: 10.1039/D3AN01150J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements