Single-Cell Electric Lysis on an Electroosmotic-Driven Microfluidic Chip with Arrays of Microwells

• Main Authors: Yu-Hung Chen, Ju-Hsiu Hsiao, Chun-Ping Jen, Ya-Hui Liu, Tamara G. Amstislavskaya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2012-05-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: microwell; single-cell; electric lysis; electroosmotic-driven; microfluidics
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/12/6/6967
• ISSN: 1424-8220

Accurate analysis at the single-cell level has become a highly attractive tool for investigating cellular content. An electroosmotic-driven microfluidic chip with arrays of 30-µm-diameter microwells was developed for single-cell electric lysis in the present study. The cellular occupancy in the microwells when the applied voltage was 5 V (82.4%) was slightly higher than that at an applied voltage of 10 V (81.8%). When the applied voltage was increased to 15 V, the cellular occupancy in the microwells dropped to 64.3%. More than 50% of the occupied microwells contain individual cells. The results of electric lysis experiments at the single-cell level indicate that the cells were gradually lysed as the DC voltage of 30 V was applied; the cell was fully lysed after 25 s. Single-cell electric lysis was demonstrated in the proposed microfluidic chip, which is suitable for high-throughput cell lysis.