A fluorescent microbead-based microfluidic immunoassay chip for immune cell cytokine secretion quantification

Lab Chip. 2018 Jan 30;18(3):522-531. doi: 10.1039/c7lc01183k.

Abstract

Quantitative and dynamic analyses of immune cell secretory cytokines are essential for precise determination and characterization of the "immune phenotype" of patients for clinical diagnosis and treatment of immune-related diseases. Although multiple methods including the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) have been applied for cytokine detection, such measurements remain very challenging in real-time, high-throughput, and high-sensitivity immune cell analysis. In this paper, we report a highly integrated microfluidic device that allows for on-chip isolation, culture, and stimulation, as well as sensitive and dynamic cytokine profiling of immune cells. Such a microfluidic sensing chip is integrated with cytometric fluorescent microbeads for real-time and multiplexed monitoring of immune cell cytokine secretion dynamics, consuming a relatively small extracted sample volume (160 nl) without interrupting the immune cell culture. Furthermore, it is integrated with a Taylor dispersion-based mixing unit in each detection chamber that shortens the immunoassay period down to less than 30 minutes. We demonstrate the profiling of multiple pro-inflammatory cytokine secretions (e.g. interleukin-6, interleukin-8, and tumor necrosis factors) of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with a sensitivity of 20 pg ml-1 and a sample volume of 160 nl per detection. Further applications of this automated, rapid, and high-throughput microfluidic immunophenotyping platform can help unleash the mechanisms of systemic immune responses, and enable efficient assessments of the pathologic immune status for clinical diagnosis and immune therapy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Cells, Cultured
  • Cytokines* / analysis
  • Cytokines* / metabolism
  • Equipment Design
  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • Humans
  • Immunoassay / instrumentation*
  • Lab-On-A-Chip Devices*
  • Leukocytes, Mononuclear / metabolism*
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Microspheres

Substances

  • Cytokines
  • Fluorescent Dyes