We created an integrated microfluidic cell separation system that incorporates hydrophoresis and dielectrophoresis modules to facilitate high-throughput continuous cell separation. The hydrophoresis module consists of a serpentine channel with ridges and trenches to generate a diverging fluid flow that focuses cells into two streams along the channel edges. The dielectrophoresis module is composed of a chevron-shaped electrode array. Separation in the dielectrophoresis module is driven by inherent cell electrophysiological properties and does not require cell-type-specific labels. The chevron shape of the electrode array couples with fluid flow in the channel to enable continuous sorting of cells to increase throughput. We tested the new system with mouse neural stem cells since their electrophysiological properties reflect their differentiation capacity (e.g., whether they will differentiate into astrocytes or neurons). The goal of our experiments was to enrich astrocyte-biased cells. Sorting parameters were optimized for each batch of neural stem cells to ensure effective and consistent separations. The continuous sorting design of the device significantly improved sorting throughput and reproducibility. Sorting yielded two cell fractions, and we found that astrocyte-biased cells were enriched in one fraction and depleted from the other. This is an advantage of the new continuous sorting device over traditional dielectrophoresis-based sorting platforms that target a subset of cells for enrichment but do not provide a corresponding depleted population. The new microfluidic dielectrophoresis cell separation system improves label-free cell sorting by increasing throughput and delivering enriched and depleted cell subpopulations in a single sort.

中文翻译：

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神经干细胞的高通量连续介电泳分离。

我们创建了一个集成的微流体细胞分离系统，该系统结合了电泳和介电泳模块，以促进高通量连续细胞分离。电泳模块由带有脊和沟槽的蛇形通道组成，可产生发散的流体流，将细胞沿通道边缘聚焦成两股流。介电泳模块由人字形电极阵列组成。介电泳模块中的分离由固有的细胞电生理特性驱动，不需要细胞类型特异性标记。电极阵列的 V 形形状与通道中的流体流动相结合，能够连续分选细胞，从而提高通量。我们用小鼠神经干细胞测试了新系统，因为它们的电生理特性反映了它们的分化能力（例如，它们是否会分化为星形胶质细胞或神经元）。我们实验的目标是富集星形胶质细胞偏向细胞。对每批神经干细胞的分选参数进行了优化，以确保有效且一致的分离。该设备的连续分选设计显着提高了分选吞吐量和再现性。分选产生了两种细胞组分，我们发现偏向星形胶质细胞的细胞在一种组分中富集，而在另一种组分中耗尽。这是新的连续分选设备相对于传统的基于介电电泳的分选平台的优势，传统的基于介电电泳的分选平台针对细胞子集进行富集，但不提供相应的耗尽细胞群。新型微流体介电泳细胞分离系统通过提高通量并在单一分选中提供富集和耗尽的细胞亚群，从而改进了无标记细胞分选。