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This study investigates how mechanical properties of cells, specifically their deformability, affect the separation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from white blood cells (WBCs) in microfluidic devices. Using computational simulations, researchers found that the deformability of CTCs influences how WBCs migrate through microchannels, creating cell-specific interaction patterns that determine separation efficiency. The findings demonstrate that current inertial microfluidic devices, which rely primarily on cell size differences, must also account for mechanical heterogeneity between cells to achieve better separation of rare CTCs from blood samples.
Why it matters
Improved CTC separation could enable earlier cancer detection through blood tests, potentially increasing survival rates. Understanding the role of cell mechanical properties in separation processes may lead to better-designed microfluidic devices that reduce contamination from WBCs and capture CTCs more effectively for diagnostic purposes.
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⚠️ Preprint – Noch nicht peer-reviewed
Dieser Artikel wurde noch nicht von unabhängigen Experten begutachtet. Die Ergebnisse sind vorläufig und sollten mit Vorsicht interpretiert werden.
Cancer survival rates increase with earlier diagnosis. However, many cancers are diagnosed only after symptoms develop, in the later stages of cancer progression. We need a diagnostic tool that can detect cancer earlier. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are cells that detach from the main tumour and can enter the bloodstream. The capture and analysis of CTCs can provide an early indicator of cancer. However, rarity of CTCs in blood makes their efficient capture challenging. Inertial microfluidics can be utilised for a label-free separation of CTCs from white blood cells (WBCs) by manipulating cells in the microchannel based on cell properties, achieving good separation performance. Inertial microfluidic devices mainly rely on size-based separation. However, residual WBC carryover limits complete separation. Here, we show that cell mechanical heterogeneity plays a large role in the separation process and should be considered in the design of these devices. We simulate the migration dynamics of CTCs and WBCs in a straight microchannel using a 3D lattice-Boltzmann-immersed-boundary-finite-element solver. Our results demonstrate that WBC migration behaviour changes depending on the deformability of a CTC. The size and deformability of the cells have been shown to determine the cell-specific heteroclinic orbits leading to different interaction types, these interactions alter WBC migration resulting in more/less WBC carryover. This work highlights that both cell-specific heteroclinic orbits and single cell migration rates should be considered in the design of inertial microfluidics for separation.