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Iványi GT, Nemes B, Gróf I, Fekete T, Kubacková J, Tomori Z, Bánó G, Vizsnyiczai G, Kelemen L. Optically Actuated Soft Microrobot Family for Single-Cell Manipulation. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2024:e2401115. [PMID: 38814436 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202401115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2024] [Revised: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/31/2024]
Abstract
Precisely controlled manipulation of nonadherent single cells is often a pre-requisite for their detailed investigation. Optical trapping provides a versatile means for positioning cells with submicrometer precision or measuring forces with femto-Newton resolution. A variant of the technique, called indirect optical trapping, enables single-cell manipulation with no photodamage and superior spatial control and stability by relying on optically trapped microtools biochemically bound to the cell. High-resolution 3D lithography enables to prepare such cell manipulators with any predefined shape, greatly extending the number of achievable manipulation tasks. Here, it is presented for the first time a novel family of cell manipulators that are deformable by optical tweezers and rely on their elasticity to hold cells. This provides a more straightforward approach to indirect optical trapping by avoiding biochemical functionalization for cell attachment, and consequently by enabling the manipulated cells to be released at any time. Using the photoresist Ormocomp, the deformations achievable with optical forces in the tens of pN range and present three modes of single-cell manipulation as examples to showcase the possible applications such soft microrobotic tools can offer are characterized. The applications describe here include cell collection, 3D cell imaging, and spatially and temporally controlled cell-cell interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gergely T Iványi
- HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged Institute of Biophysics, Temesvári krt. 62, Szeged, 6726, Hungary
- Doctoral School of Multidisciplinary Medical Sciences, University of Szeged, Szeged, 6720, Hungary
| | - Botond Nemes
- HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged Institute of Biophysics, Temesvári krt. 62, Szeged, 6726, Hungary
| | - Ilona Gróf
- HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged Institute of Biophysics, Temesvári krt. 62, Szeged, 6726, Hungary
| | - Tamás Fekete
- HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged Institute of Biophysics, Temesvári krt. 62, Szeged, 6726, Hungary
| | - Jana Kubacková
- Department of Biophysics, Institute of Experimental Physics SAS, Watsonova 47, Košice, 04001, Slovakia
| | - Zoltán Tomori
- Department of Biophysics, Institute of Experimental Physics SAS, Watsonova 47, Košice, 04001, Slovakia
| | - Gregor Bánó
- Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Science, P. J. Šafárik University, Jesenná 5, Košice, 04154, Slovakia
| | - Gaszton Vizsnyiczai
- HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged Institute of Biophysics, Temesvári krt. 62, Szeged, 6726, Hungary
- Department of Biotechnology, University of Szeged, Szeged, 6720, Hungary
| | - Lóránd Kelemen
- HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged Institute of Biophysics, Temesvári krt. 62, Szeged, 6726, Hungary
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Hu S, Liu T, Xue C, Li Y, Yang Y, Xu X, Liu B, Chen X, Zhao Y, Qin K. A high-throughput microfluidic device inspired by the Wheatstone bridge principle for characterizing the mechanical properties of single cells. ANALYTICAL METHODS : ADVANCING METHODS AND APPLICATIONS 2022; 14:4813-4821. [PMID: 36382629 DOI: 10.1039/d2ay01416e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
The mechanical properties of single cells have been recognized as biomarkers for identifying individual cells and diagnosing human diseases. Microfluidic devices based on the flow cytometry principle, which are not limited by the vision field of a microscope and can achieve a very high throughput, have been extensively adopted to measure the mechanical properties of single cells. However, these kinds of microfluidic devices usually required pressure-driven pumps with a very low flow rate and high precision. In this study, we developed a high-throughput microfluidic device inspired by the Wheatstone bridge principle for characterizing the mechanical properties of single cells. The microfluidic analogue of the Wheatstone bridge not only took advantage of flow cytometry, but also allowed precise control of a very low flow rate through the constricted channel with a higher input flow rate generated by a commercially available pressure-driven pump. Under different input flow rates of the pump, the apparent elastic moduli and the fluidity of osteosarcoma (U-2OS) cells and cervical carcinoma (HeLa) cells were measured by monitoring their dynamic deformations passing through the bridge-channel with different sizes of rectangular constrictions. The results showed that the input flow rate had little effect on measuring the mechanical properties of the cells, while the ratio of cell radius to effective constriction radius was different, i.e., for U-2OS cells it was 1.20 and for HeLa cells it was 1.09. Under this condition compared with predecessors, our statistic results of cell mechanical properties exhibited minimal errors. Furthermore, the cell viability after measurements was kept above 90% that demonstrated the non-destructive property of our proposed method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siyu Hu
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Tianmian Liu
- DUT-BSU Joint Institute, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Chundong Xue
- School of Optoelectronic Engineering and Instrumentation Science, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, China.
| | - Yongjiang Li
- School of Optoelectronic Engineering and Instrumentation Science, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, China.
| | - Yunong Yang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Xing Xu
- Department of Endoscopy, Liaoning Cancer Hospital and Institute, Shenyang, 110042, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Bo Liu
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Xiaoming Chen
- School of Optoelectronic Engineering and Instrumentation Science, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, China.
| | - Yan Zhao
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, China
- Department of Gastric Cancer, Liaoning Cancer Hospital and Institute, Cancer Hospital of Dalian University of Technology, Shenyang, 110042, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Kairong Qin
- School of Optoelectronic Engineering and Instrumentation Science, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, China.
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, China
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Chen Z, Zhu Y, Xu D, Alam MM, Shui L, Chen H. Cell elasticity measurement using a microfluidic device with real-time pressure feedback. LAB ON A CHIP 2020; 20:2343-2353. [PMID: 32463051 DOI: 10.1039/d0lc00092b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
The study of cell elasticity provides new insights into not only cell biology but also disease diagnosis based on cell mechanical state variation. Microfluidic technologies have made noticeable progress in studying cell deformation with capabilities of high throughput and automation. This paper reports the development of a novel microfluidic system to precisely measure the elasticity of cells having large deformation in a constriction channel. It integrated i) a separation unit to isolate rod- or flake-shaped particles that might block the constriction channel to increase the measurement throughput and ii) a pressure feedback system precisely detecting the pressure drop inducing the deformation of each cell. The fluid dynamics of the separation unit was modeled to understand the separation mechanism before the experimental determination of separation efficiency. Afterward, the pressure system was characterized to demonstrate its sensitivity and reproducibility in measuring the subtle pressure drop along a constriction channel. Finally, the microfluidic system was employed to study the stiffness of both K562 and endothelial cells. The cell protrusion and pressure drop were employed to calculate the mechanical properties based on a power-law rheology model describing the viscoelastic behaviors of cells. Both the stiffness and the fluidity of K562 and endothelial cells were consistent with those in previous studies. The system has remarkable application potential in the precise evaluation of cell mechanical properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhenlin Chen
- School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518055, China.
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Simultaneously Quantifying Both Young's Modulus and Specific Membrane Capacitance of Bladder Cancer Cells with Different Metastatic Potential. MICROMACHINES 2020; 11:mi11030249. [PMID: 32120859 PMCID: PMC7143764 DOI: 10.3390/mi11030249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2020] [Revised: 02/23/2020] [Accepted: 02/25/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Both Young's modulus and specific membrane capacitance (SMC) are two important physical parameters for characterizing cell status. In this paper, we utilized a thin-neck-micropipette aspiration system to simultaneously quantify Young's modulus and SMC value of six types of cell lines in different progression grades, which include four grades from the lowest metastatic potential G1 to the highest potential G4. We investigated how these two physical properties possess heterogeneities in bladder cancer cells with different grades and what roles they might play in grading bladder cancer. The characterization results of these cells of different cancer grades is linearly correlated with the cancer grades, showing that the Young's modulus is negatively linearly correlated with bladder cancer grades, while SMC shows a positive linear correlation. Furthermore, the combination of these two physical properties on a scatter diagram clearly shows the cell groups with different cancer grades, which means that this combination could be a potential tumor grading marker to identify cancer cells with different metastatic potential.
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