We present a new experimental method that measures the compressibility of phenotype-specific cell populations. This is done by performing statistical analysis of the cell counts from the outlets of an acoustophoresis chip as a function of the increasing actuator voltage (i.e. acoustic energy density) during acoustophoretic separation. The theoretical separation performance curve, henceforth, Side-Stream Recovery (\(\mathrm {SSR}\)), vs the piezo-actuator voltage (V) is derived by moment analysis of a one-dimensional model of acoustophoresis separation, accounting for distributions of the cell or microparticle properties and the system parameters (hydrodynamics, radiation force, drag enhancement, and acoustic streaming). The acoustophoretic device is calibrated with polymer microbeads of known properties by fitting the experimental \(\mathrm {SSR}\) with the theoretical \(\mathrm {SSR}\), in which the acoustic energy density is considered proportional to the squared voltage, i.e. \(E_\mathrm {ac}^{}=\alpha \,V^2_{}\). The fitting parameter \(\alpha\) for the calibration procedure is the device effectivity, reflecting the efficiency in performing acoustophoretic microparticle displacement. Once calibrated, the compressibility of unknown cells is estimated by fitting experimental \(\mathrm {SSR}\) cell data points with the theoretical \(\mathrm {SSR}\) curve. In this procedure, the microparticle compressibility is the fitting parameter. The method is applied to estimate the compressibility of a variety of cell populations showing its utility in terms of rapid analysis and need for minute sample amounts.

我们提出了一种新的实验方法，可测量表型特异性细胞群体的可压缩性。这是通过在声电泳分离过程中，根据声电泳芯片的出口处的细胞计数进行统计分析来实现的，该统计是作为增加的致动器电压（即声能密度）的函数。因此，理论上的分离性能曲线即侧流回收率（\（\ mathrm {SSR} \））与压电致动器电压（V）是通过对一声电泳分离的一维模型进行矩分析得出的，该模型考虑了细胞或微粒特性的分布以及系统参数（流体动力学，辐射力，阻力增强和声流）。通过将实验\（\ mathrm {SSR} \）与理论\（\ mathrm {SSR} \）进行拟合，用已知特性的聚合物微珠对声电泳设备进行校准，在该理论中，声能密度与电压平方成正比，即\（E_ \ mathrm {ac} ^ {} = \ alpha \，V ^ 2 _ {} \）。拟合参数\（\ alpha \）校准程序的效率是设备的效率，反映了进行声电泳微粒置换的效率。校准后，可通过将实验\（\ mathrm {SSR} \）细胞数据点与理论\（\ mathrm {SSR} \）曲线拟合来估算未知细胞的可压缩性。在该程序中，微粒可压缩性是拟合参数。该方法用于估计各种细胞群体的可压缩性，显示了其在快速分析和需要少量样品方面的实用性。