Continuous cell cross over and lysis in a microfluidic device

Complex sample preparation processes are major stumbling blocks for the development of lab-on-a-chip (LOC). We herein advance a microfluidic device for chemical cell lysis using a cell cross over (CCO) technology for the purpose of minimizing the sample preparation steps. The proposed device allows cells to continuously cross over from a cell carrier to a cell lysis solution in a CCO region and to be automatically lysed. For the successful CCO and cell lysis, microflow patterns and cell movements in the CCO region are investigated by experimental as well as numerical studies. EL-4 mammalian cells are used for the demonstration of the performance of the proposed device. The DNA sample obtained from the developed device is quantitatively and qualitatively compared with the one obtained from a conventional chemical cell lysis method by using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer and gel electrophoresis. The quantitative analysis shows that the recovered DNA is 86% compared to the one obtained from the conventional chemical cell lysis.