Discrimination methodology of living-cells and microbeads using dielectrophoresis and fluid-induced shear force

Cell sorting is an important technology that is widely used for medical diagnosis in hospitals and cell engineering research. Among cell sorting technology, dielectrophoresis (DEP) is one of the most promising approaches for manipulating and separating biological particles because this phenomena requires no labeling procedure with a fluorescent dye or magnetic beads. In this study, we developed a precise cell sorting system by evaluating the DEP force with a liquid flow system. The DEP forces acting on a cell or polystyrene microbead (cell simulant) were characterized using a microfluidic chamber containing an electrode-array and fluid-induced shear forces. On the basis of this characterization, separation of the cells and microbeads was performed using our novel DEP cell sorting system. As a result, the living cells were trapped by the DEP force on the electrode arrays, whereas the beads passed the electrode array. In conclusion, the DEP force combined with fluid-induced shear force could separate the living cells from cell simulants.