Microfluidic structures for flow cytometric analysis of hydrodynamically focussed blood cells fabricated by ultraprecision micromachining

We present three-dimensional microfluidic structures with integrated optical fibers, mirrors and electrodes for flow cytometric analysis of blood cells. Ultraprecision milling technique was used to fabricate different flow cells featuring single-stage and two-stage cascaded hydrodynamic focusing of particles by a sheath flow. Two dimensional focussing of the sample fluid was proven by fluorescence imaging in horizontal and vertical directions and found to agree satisfactorily with finite element calculations. Focussing of the sample stream down to 5 mu m at a particle velocity of 3 m s(-1) is accessible while maintaining stable operation for sample flow rates of up to 20 mu L min(-1). In addition to fluorescence imaging, the micro-flow cells were characterised by measurements of pulse shapes and pulse height distributions of monodisperse microspheres. We demonstrated practical use of the microstructures for cell differentiation employing light scatter to distinguish platelets and red blood cells. Furthermore, T-helper lymphocytes labelled by monoclonal antibodies were identified by measuring side scatter and fluorescence.