This paper presents an automated, miniaturized, and portable system capable of detection and differentiation of cultured tumor cells and non-malignant cells. It is also capable of differentiation between single tumor cells and cell clusters. It is noninvasive, and operates without the need for cell labelling, device functionalization, and cell immobilization. The system is composed of a microfabricated electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) based sensor, a custom printed circuit board (PCB) and software running on a computer. The custom PCB replaces costly and specialized impedance analysis instruments and the software with a graphical user interface facilitates automated decisions - thus making the system easy to operate. Performance was tested with three human breast cell lines: healthy cell line BPE-3 and tumor cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231. The system successfully detected and differentiated between the three cell lines. The observed difference between the healthy cell line and the two tumor cell lines was more pronounced. And as cell detection and differentiation is based solely on biophysical properties of cells, disadvantages arising from affinity-based methods can be avoided. The presented miniaturized system possesses the potential to be developed into a low cost, portable and mass producible device for automated detection of CTCs in blood samples at point of care locations. The figure shows the microfabricated sensor consisting of a microfluidic channel with gold electrodes on the channel sidewalls employed to probe biological cells: (A) final device with PDMS layer to be bonded. (B) Microscope image of an electrode pair. (Scale bars 5mm and 100 μm).

中文翻译：

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用于肿瘤细胞检测和分化的小型化系统


本文提出了一种自动化、小型化、便携式系统，能够检测和分化培养的肿瘤细胞和非恶性细胞。它还能够区分单个肿瘤细胞和细胞簇。它是非侵入性的，无需细胞标记、设备功能化和细胞固定即可操作。该系统由基于微制造电阻抗谱 (EIS) 的传感器、定制印刷电路板 (PCB) 和在计算机上运行的软件组成。定制 PCB 取代了昂贵的专用阻抗分析仪器，并且具有图形用户界面的软件有助于自动化决策，从而使系统易于操作。使用三种人类乳腺细胞系测试了性能：健康细胞系 BPE-3 以及肿瘤细胞系 MCF-7 和 MDA-MB-231。该系统成功检测并区分了三种细胞系。健康细胞系和两种肿瘤细胞系之间观察到的差异更为明显。由于细胞检测和分化仅基于细胞的生物物理特性，因此可以避免基于亲和力的方法产生的缺点。所提出的小型化系统具有开发成低成本、便携式和可大规模生产的设备的潜力，用于在护理点自动检测血液样本中的 CTC。该图显示了由微流体通道组成的微加工传感器，通道侧壁上带有金电极，用于探测生物细胞：(A) 具有待粘合的 PDMS 层的最终装置。 (B) 电极对的显微镜图像。 （比例尺 5mm 和 100 μm）。