Discrimination of normal skin fibroblast and malignant melanocytes using dielectrophoretic force and fluid-induced shear force

Cell analysis is an important technology that is widely used for medical diagnosis in hospitals and cell engineering research. Among cell analysis technology, dielectrophoresis (DEP) is one of the most promising approaches for discriminating biological particles because this phenomena requires no labeling procedure with a fluorescent dye or magnetic beads. In this study, we developed a precise cell analysis system by evaluating the DEP force with a liquid flow system. The DEP forces acting on a cell was characterized using a microfluidic chamber containing an electrode-array and fluid-induced shear forces. On the basis of this characterization, the discrimination between healthy skin cells and cancer cells was performed using our novel DEP cell sorting system. As a result, the healthy cells and cancer cells could be distinguished even if the dielectrophoretic properties of those cells were similar.