Rapid cell separation with minimal manipulation for autologous cell therapies

• Main Authors: Smith, Alban J., O’Rorke, Richard D., Kale, Akshay, Rimsa, Roberts, Tomlinson, Matthew J., Kirkham, Jennifer, Davies, A. Giles, Wälti, Christoph, Wood, Christopher D.
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Minimal Manipulation; Autologous Cell Therapies
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/87589; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45460
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The ability to isolate specific, viable cell populations from mixed ensembles with minimal manipulation and within intra-operative time would provide significant advantages for autologous, cell-based therapies in regenerative medicine. Current cell-enrichment technologies are either slow, lack specificity and/or require labelling. Thus a rapid, label-free separation technology that does not affect cell functionality, viability or phenotype is highly desirable. Here, we demonstrate separation of viable from non-viable human stromal cells using remote dielectrophoresis, in which an electric field is coupled into a microfluidic channel using shear-horizontal surface acoustic waves, producing an array of virtual electrodes within the channel. This allows high-throughput dielectrophoretic cell separation in high conductivity, physiological-like fluids, overcoming the limitations of conventional dielectrophoresis. We demonstrate viable/non-viable separation efficacy of >98% in pre-purified mesenchymal stromal cells, extracted from human dental pulp, with no adverse effects on cell viability, or on their subsequent osteogenic capabilities.