Microfluidic Platform for Cell Isolation and Manipulation Based on Cell Properties

In molecular and cellular biological research, cell isolation and sorting are required for accurate investigation of a specific cell types. By employing unique cell properties to distinguish between cell types, rapid and accurate sorting with high efficiency is possible. Though conventional methods can provide high efficiency sorting using the specific properties of cell, microfluidics systems pave the way to utilize multiple cell properties in a single pass. This improves the selectivity of target cells from multiple cell types with increased purity and recovery rate while maintaining higher throughput comparable to conventional systems. This review covers the breadth of microfluidic platforms for isolation of cellular subtypes based on their intrinsic (e.g., electrical, magnetic, and compressibility) and extrinsic properties (e.g., size, shape, morphology and surface markers). The review concludes by highlighting the advantages and limitations of the reviewed techniques which then suggests future research directions. Addressing these challenges will lead to improved purity, throughput, viability and recovery of cells and be an enabler for novel downstream analysis of cells.