Abstract
The circulating tumor cell test is used to evaluate the condition of breast cancer patients by counting the number of cancer cells in peripheral blood samples. Although microfluidic systems to detect or separate cells using the inertial migration effect may be applied to this test, the hydrodynamic forces acting on cancer cells in high hematocrit blood flow are incompletely understood. In the present study, we investigated the inertial migration of cancer cells in high hematocrit blood flow in microchannels. The maximum hematocrit used in this study was about 40%. By measuring the cell migration probability, we examined the effects of cell–cell interactions, cell deformability, and variations in cell size on the inertial migration of cancer cells in blood. The results clearly illustrate that cancer cells can migrate towards equilibrium positions up to a hematocrit level of 10%. We also performed simple scaling analysis to explain the differences in migration length between rigid particles and cancer cells as well as the effect of hematocrit on cancer cell migration. These results will be important for the design of microfluidic devices for separating cells from blood.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A.A.S. Bhagat, S.S. Kuntaegowdanahalli, I. Papautsky, Inertial microfluidics for continuous particle filtration and extraction. Microfluid Nanofluid 7, 217–226 (2009)
G.T. Budd, M. Cristofanilli, M.J. Ellis et al., Circulating tumor cells versus imaging-predicting overall survival in metastatic breast cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. 12, 6403–6409 (2006)
D.D. Carlo, Inertial microfluidics. Lab Chip 9, 3038–3046 (2009)
D.D. Carlo, J.F. Edd, D. Irimia et al., Equilibrium separation and filtration of particles using differential inertial focusing. Anal. Chem. 80, 2204–2211 (2008)
M. Cristofanilli, G.T. Budd et al., Circulating tumor cells, disease progression, and survival in metastatic breast cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 351, 781–791 (2004)
M. Cristofanilli, D.F. Hayes, G.T. Budd et al., Circulating tumor cells: A novel prognostic factor for newly diagnosed metastatic breast cancer. J. Clin. Oncol. 23, 1420–1430 (2005)
D.R. Gossett, W.M. Weaver, A.J. Mach et al., Label-free cell separation and sorting in microfluidic systems. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 397, 3249–3267 (2010)
S.C. Hur, H.T.K. Tse, D.D. Carlo, Sheathless inertial cell ordering for extreme throughput flow cytometry. Lab Chip 10, 274–280 (2010)
T. Ishikawa, H. Fujiwara, et al., Asymmetry of blood flow and cancer cell adhesion in a microchannel with symmetric bifurcation and confluence. Biomed. Microdevices. 13, 159–167 (2011)
S.S. Kuntaegowdanahalli, A.A.S. Bhagat et al., Inertial microfluidics for continuous particle separation in spiral microchannels. Lab Chip 9, 2973–2980 (2009)
G.Y.H. Lee, C.T. Lim, Biomechanics approaches to studying human diseases. Trends Biotechnol. 25, 111–118 (2007)
R. Lima, S. Wada et al., In vitro blood flow in a rectangular PDMS microchannel: experimental observations using a confocal micro-PIV system. Biomed. Microdevices 10, 153–167 (2008a)
R. Lima, T. Ishikawa et al., Radial dispersion of red blood cells in blood flowing through glass capillaries: The role of hematocrit and geometry. J. Biomech. 41, 2188–2196 (2008b)
J.S. Park, S.H. Song, H.I. Jung, Continuous focusing of microparticles using inertial lift force and vorticity via multi-orifice microfluidic channels. Lab Chip 9, 939–948 (2009)
E.D. Pratt, C. Huang, B.G. Hawkins, et al., Rare cell capture in microfluidic devices. Chem. Eng. Sci. 66, 1508–1522 (2011)
M. Saadatmand, T. Ishikawa et al., Fluid particle diffusion through high-hematocrit blood flow within a capillary tube. J. Biomech. 44, 170–175 (2011)
S. Suresh, Biomechanics and biophysics of cancer cells. Acta Mater. 55, 3989–4014 (2007)
Z. Wu, B. Willing, J. Bjerketorp et al., Soft inertial microfluidics for high throughput separation of bacteria from human blood cells. Lab Chip 9, 1193–1199 (2009)
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) and (B) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS; No. 19100008 and No. 22300149). We also acknowledge the support from the 2007 Global COE Program “Global Nano-Biomedical Engineering Education and Research Network Centre.”
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tanaka, T., Ishikawa, T., Numayama-Tsuruta, K. et al. Inertial migration of cancer cells in blood flow in microchannels. Biomed Microdevices 14, 25–33 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-011-9582-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-011-9582-y