Journal
BIOMECHANICS AND MODELING IN MECHANOBIOLOGY
Volume 18, Issue 2, Pages 425-433Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s10237-018-1093-9
Keywords
Cell modeling; Cell separation; Cytometry; Simulation; Coarse grain
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation
- University of Georgia (UGA) start-up fund
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Medical studies have consistently shown that the best defense against cancer is early detection. Due to this, many efforts have been made to develop methods of screening patient blood quickly and cheaply. These methods range from separation via differences in size, electrostatic potential, chemical potential, antibody-binding affinity, among others. We propose a method of separating cells which have similar size and outer coatings, but which differ in their elastic properties. Such a method would be useful in detecting cancerous cells, which may have similar properties to leukocytes or erythrocytes but differ in their stiffness and deformation response. Here, we use coarse-grained model of a cell with membrane, cytoskeleton, and inner fluid to determine how small changes in the cell stiffness may be used to quickly and efficiently separate out irregular cells such as circulating tumor cells from a sample of blood. We focus specifically on the effects of volumetric flux and plate geometry on the ability of a separation plate to differentiate cells of similar but disparate stiffnesses. We show that volumetric flux is crucial in determining the stiffness cutoff for separating out cells of similar sizes, while the angle of the separation plate plays a less important role. With this work, we provide a comprehensive approach to the design factors of cell separation via elastic properties and hope to offer a guideline for the development of novel cytometry devices for the detection of irregular cells such as circulating tumor cells.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available