Abstract

Brain microvascular cells such as brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMEC), pericytes, and astrocytes are major components of the blood–brain barrier (BBB). The BBB regulates substance transport from the blood into the brain and is involved in the progression of many neurological diseases. This has led to significant interest in developing in vitro models to study the characteristics of brain primary microvascular cells and the BBB. However, BMECs only account for 1–2% of the total cell population in the brain and are extremely difficult to obtain. We report a microfluidic immunopanning chip (MIC) for the on-chip isolation and purification of multiple types of primary brain microvascular cells simultaneously. The cell isolation efficiency and purity achieved with the MIC are higher compared with conventional bench-top immunopanning method. We incorporated microcarriers in the MIC as a means to increase cell capturing efficiency and a substrate for subsequent cell culture. With low reagents consumption, multiplexing capabilities, and high isolation efficiency, the MIC shows great potential as a tool for rare cell isolation and have potential broader applications in cell therapy.

Graphic abstract

中文翻译：

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在微流控免疫淘片（MIC）上分离原代脑内皮细胞，周细胞和星形胶质细胞

摘要

脑微血管细胞，例如脑微血管内皮细胞（BMEC），周细胞和星形胶质细胞是血脑屏障（BBB）的主要成分。BBB调节物质从血液向大脑的运输，并参与许多神经系统疾病的发展。这引起了对开发体外模型以研究脑原代微血管细胞和血脑屏障特征的极大兴趣。但是，BMEC仅占大脑总细胞总数的1-2％，并且极难获得。我们报告微流控免疫淘芯片（MIC）的芯片上分离和同时纯化多种类型的主要脑微血管细胞。与传统的台式免疫淘洗方法相比，使用MIC获得的细胞分离效率和纯度更高。我们在MIC中加入了微载体，以提高细胞捕获效率和后续细胞培养的底物。MIC具有低试剂消耗，多路复用功能和高分离效率的优点，它作为稀有细胞分离的工具具有巨大的潜力，并且在细胞治疗中具有广阔的应用前景。

图形摘要