Cellular adherent morphology and suspended electrical property are two important intrinsic biophysical features of single cells in two states. However, few studies reported their relationship due to lacking systematic methods. Here, we proposed a toolchain for enriching, proliferating single cells from pleural effusions (PEs), and characterizing their adherent morphologies and suspended inherent electrical properties. Our 3D cell sieving device was employed to enrich rare tumor cells from every 50 mL clinical PEs. After proliferated, ten samples were enrolled, whose cells' adherent morphologies were quantified with the elongation ratio (Er). Our microfluidic impedance flow cytometry was developed to characterize ~65,400 suspended single cells' electrical properties (e.g., C_sm). Subsequently, we experimentally found that the C_sm of 5 spindle-like (mainly Er> 2) samples were all quantified as focused above 1.5 μF/cm², whereas others' were all focused around 1–1.5 μF/cm² for 5 round-like (mainly Er≤ 2) samples. Spearman rhos were introduced to further quantify this potential correlation from aspects of proportions (C_sm> 1.5 μF/cm², Er> 2), average, and median, noting as 0.758 (p = 0.011), 0.760 (p = 0.011), and 0.744 (p = 0.014), respectively. Those results revealed a significant correlation between single cells' Er and C_sm─which means that the underlying correlation between cells' two label-free biophysical properties presented in two states was discovered.

细胞贴壁形态和悬浮电特性是两种状态下单细胞的两个重要的内在生物物理特征。然而，由于缺乏系统的方法，很少有研究报告它们之间的关系。在这里，我们提出了一种工具链，用于从胸腔积液 (PE) 中富集、增殖单细胞，并表征它们的贴壁形态和悬浮的固有电特性。我们的 3D 细胞筛分设备用于从每 50 mL 临床 PE 中富集稀有肿瘤细胞。增殖后，招募了10个样本，其细胞的贴壁形态用延伸率（Er）量化。我们的微流体阻抗流式细胞仪被开发用于表征约 65,400 个悬浮单细胞的电特性（例如，C _sm）。随后，我们通过实验发现5个纺锤状（主要是Er> 2）样品的C _{sm都被量化为集中在1.5 μF/cm} ²以上，而其他的都集中在1-1.5 μF/cm ²左右5轮- 样（主要是 Er≤2）样本。引入 Spearman rhos 以从比例（C _sm > 1.5 μF/cm ²，Er> 2）、平均值和中位数等方面进一步量化这种潜在相关性，注意为 0.758（p = 0.011）、0.760（p = 0.011），和 0.744 (p = 0.014)，分别。这些结果揭示了单细胞的 Er 和 C _{sm之间的显着相关性}─这意味着发现了细胞在两种状态下呈现的两种无标记生物物理特性之间的潜在相关性。