Single-cell nucleic acid analysis aims at discovering the genetic differences between individual cells which is well known as the cellular heterogeneity. This technology facilitates cancer diagnosis, stem cell research, immune system analysis, and other life science applications. The conventional platforms for single-cell nucleic acid analysis more rely on manual operation or bulky devices. Recently, the emerging microfluidic technology has provided a perfect platform for single-cell nucleic acid analysis with the characteristic of accurate and automatic single-cell manipulation. In this review, we briefly summarized the procedure of single-cell nucleic acid analysis including single-cell isolation, single-cell lysis, nucleic acid amplification, and genetic analysis. And then, three representative microfluidic platforms for single-cell nucleic acid analysis are concluded as valve-, microwell-, and droplet-based platforms. Furthermore, we described the state-of-the-art integrated single-cell nucleic acid analysis systems based on the three platforms. Finally, the future development and challenges of microfluidics-based single-cell nucleic acid analysis are discussed as well.

单细胞核酸分析旨在发现单个细胞之间的遗传差异，即众所周知的细胞异质性。该技术有助于癌症诊断、干细胞研究、免疫系统分析和其他生命科学应用。传统的单细胞核酸分析平台更多地依赖手动操作或笨重的设备。近年来，新兴的微流控技术为单细胞核酸分析提供了一个完美的平台，具有单细胞操作准确、自动化的特点。在这篇综述中，我们简要总结了单细胞核酸分析的过程，包括单细胞分离、单细胞裂解、核酸扩增和基因分析。然后，用于单细胞核酸分析的三个具有代表性的微流体平台总结为基于阀门、微孔和液滴的平台。此外，我们描述了基于三个平台的最先进的集成单细胞核酸分析系统。最后，还讨论了基于微流控的单细胞核酸分析的未来发展和挑战。