Design and Fabrication of a Nano-Microfluidic Device for Blood and Cancer Cells Separation

Abstract

In the present work, an attempt has been made to develop, design, and fabricate a low-cost, easily operable micro-fluidic device used for separation, filtration, and purification of the cancer cells from the blood. The fabricated device can also be used for purification and separation of different chemical particles. The response surface methodology (RSM) technique, the full factorial design (FFD), and the expert system 11.0 software program were selected to design, improve, and assess the experimental work. The fabricated device efficiency was tested and evaluated by implementing several experiments. The designed experimental input parameters were the separation method (horizontal, vertical, and the microfluidic method for white blood cell (WBC) separation system; the microfluidic Pore Size 0.43, 3, 8, 12 μm and the air pressure level (0, 50, 100 and 150 mbar). The main experimental results of current research showed that the blood and the rates of cancer cells separating and filtration were increased with increasing the air pressure levels and the microfluidic pores sizes. The best results were obtained for cancer, and tumor-free cell separation rate at an air pressure of 150 mbar with using the horizontal separation system reached 16.91ml, or 3.38 ml/min, which are higher by 2.8 times than the efficiency of the use of the vertical system. The highest quantity of the separated (WBC) was obtained under the same conditions, reached 17.14 ml, or 3.43 ml/min, which is higher than the vertical system’s efficiency by 3.4 times, and higher by 30.08%. Compared with the use of the microfluidic (WBC) separation system. The best-obtained results of red blood cell (RBC) separated quantity reached 5.71 ml or a rate of 1.142 ml/min, which is higher than the efficiency of the vertical system separation by 90.33%. The highest blood cells filtration and purification quantity from the blood-related viruses and bacteria were obtained at 100 mbar air pressure, and the use of the vertical separation system reached 2.50 ml. or at a rate of 0.5 ml/min, which is higher than the productivity of the horizontal system by 8.6 times.