Dielectrophoretic Separation of Prostate Cancer Cells

Separation of cancer cells from other biological materials is significant for circulating tumor cell detection in cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, separation of one type of cancer cell from other types of cancer cells can be difficult, since they share similar morphology and biomarkers. In the present work, we have successfully manipulated and isolated LNCaP prostate cancer cells from HCT116 colorectal cancer cells, by dielectrophoresis (DEP) in a microfluidic platform in a continuous operation. In this cell sorter, the prostate cancer cells were treated as target cells and were deflected to a side channel from a main channel as they experienced a negative DEP force, when an AC electric field at the cross-over frequency of the HCT116 cells was supplied. This motion consequently led to the separation of the prostate cancer cells from the colorectal cancer cells. In this manuscript, we report the flow conditions, DEP spectra of the cancer cells and the isolation of LNCaP cells from HCT116 cells. The separation and enrichment factor have been investigated as well.