Rare cell sorting with magnetic nanoparticles labels (MNPs) has been achieved by the aid of microfluidic chip, which offers an easy processing approach to sort the rare cells from a trace original sample. However, its applications have been limited in large part due to the presence of some redundant MNPs in the sorted target cells affecting the purity of sorted target cells. This paper demonstrates a novel rare cell-sorting microfluidic chip based on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and the MNPs. The cell-sorting system combines the mechanisms of magnetic sorting, the geometry selection and the microfluidic manoeuvre to achieve high efficient cell sorting with real-time monitoring. The device with an array of microcolums acting as a micro-sieve is capable of separating target cells, background cells and redundant MNPs simultaneously while having the target cells from the chip outlet for subsequent studies. A finite element method simulation is implemented to quantify the experimental conditions. Green fluorescent Hela cells (Hela-GFP) with different concentrations are used in the cell sorting experiments. The experimental results show the ability of this microfluidic chip to capture MNPs-labelled target cells with high capture accuracy and the maximum recovery rate up to 99.7%. The proposed approach provides an effective and reliable tool for biological and clinical researches, and paves the way to an automated rare cell sorting system.

借助微流控芯片实现了带有磁性纳米颗粒标记 (MNP) 的稀有细胞分选，这为从微量原始样本中分选稀有细胞提供了一种简单的处理方法。然而，由于分选靶细胞中存在一些冗余的 MNP，影响分选靶细胞的纯度，其应用在很大程度上受到了限制。本文展示了一种基于聚二甲基硅氧烷 (PDMS) 和 MNPs 的新型稀有细胞分选微流控芯片。细胞分选系统结合了磁分选、几何选择和微流体操纵的机制，实现了高效的细胞分选和实时监控。具有充当微筛的微柱阵列的装置能够分离靶细胞，背景细胞和冗余 MNPs 同时从芯片出口获得目标细胞用于后续研究。实施有限元方法模拟以量化实验条件。在细胞分选实验中使用不同浓度的绿色荧光 Hela 细胞 (Hela-GFP)。实验结果表明，该微流控芯片能够捕获MNPs标记的靶细胞，捕获精度高，最高回收率可达99.7%。所提出的方法为生物学和临床研究提供了一种有效和可靠的工具，并为自动化稀有细胞分选系统铺平了道路。在细胞分选实验中使用不同浓度的绿色荧光 Hela 细胞 (Hela-GFP)。实验结果表明，该微流控芯片能够捕获MNPs标记的靶细胞，捕获精度高，最高回收率可达99.7%。所提出的方法为生物学和临床研究提供了一种有效和可靠的工具，并为自动化稀有细胞分选系统铺平了道路。在细胞分选实验中使用不同浓度的绿色荧光 Hela 细胞 (Hela-GFP)。实验结果表明，该微流控芯片能够捕获MNPs标记的靶细胞，捕获精度高，最高回收率可达99.7%。所提出的方法为生物学和临床研究提供了一种有效和可靠的工具，并为自动化稀有细胞分选系统铺平了道路。