Cell lysis inside the capillary facilitated by transverse diffusion of laminar flow profiles (TDLFP)

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Chemical cytometry studies the molecular composition of individual cells by means of capillary electrophoresis or capillary chromatography. In one of its realizations an intact cell is injected inside the capillary, the plasma membrane is disrupted to release the cellular contents into the separation buffer, and, finally, the molecules of interest are separated and detected. The solubilization of the plasma membrane with a surfactant is a simple and efficient way of achieving cell lysis inside the capillary. To facilitate cell lysis by a surfactant the cell has to be contacted with the surfactant inside the capillary. We recently introduced a generic method for mixing solutions inside the capillary termed transverse diffusion of laminar flow profiles (TDLFP). In this work, we propose that TDLFP can facilitate efficient cell lysis inside the capillary. Conceptually, a short plug of the surfactant is injected by pressure prior to cell injection. The cell is then injected by pressure within a plug of the physiological buffer. Due to the parabolic profiles of pressure-driven laminar flows the interface between the plug of the surfactant and that of the physiological buffer is predominantly longitudinal. Transverse diffusion mixes the surfactant with the physiological buffer, which leads to surfactant's contact with the cell and subsequent cell lysis. Here, we demonstrate that the proposed concept is valid. TDLFP-facilitated cell lysis by a short plug of the surfactant allows us to exclude the surfactant from the run buffer, and, hence, facilitates modes of separation, which are incompatible with the surfactant's presence in the run buffer. In addition to cell lysis, TDLFP will be used to mix the cellular components with labeling reactants, affinity probes, inhibitors, etc. We foresee that the generic nature and enabling capabilities of TDLFP will speed up the maturation of chemical cytometry into a practical bioanalytical tool.