Impedance-based viscoelastic flow cytometry

2nd International Conference of Microfluidics, Nanofluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip -- JUN 08-10, 2018 -- Beijing, PEOPLES R CHINA Serhatlioglu, Murat/0000-0003-2083-6756; Elbuken, Caglar/0000-0001-8359-6871; GULER, MUSTAFA TAHSIN/0000-0002-0478-3183 WOS: 000461091000010 PubMed: 30632175 Elastic nature of the viscoelastic fluids induces lateral migration of particles into a single streamline and can be used by microfluidic based flow cytometry devices. In this study, we investigated focusing efficiency of polyethylene oxide based viscoelastic solutions at varying ionic concentration to demonstrate their use in impedimetric particle characterization systems. Rheological properties of the viscoelastic fluid and particle focusing performance are not affected by ionic concentration. We investigated the viscoelastic focusing dynamics using polystyrene (PS) beads and human red blood cells (RBCs) suspended in the viscoelastic fluid. Elasto-inertial focusing of PS beads was achieved with the combination of inertial and viscoelastic effects. RBCs were aligned along the channel centerline in parachute shape which yielded consistent impedimetric signals. We compared our impedance-based microfluidic flow cytometry results for RBCs and PS beads by analyzing particle transit time and peak amplitude at varying viscoelastic focusing conditions obtained at different flow rates. We showed that single orientation, single train focusing of nonspherical RBCs can be achieved with polyethylene oxide based viscoelastic solution that has been shown to be a good candidate as a carrier fluid for impedance cytometry. Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [215E086] The authors thank to Zeynep Erdogan, Ziya Isiksacan for contributions during rheometer measurements and preparation of the manuscript. The authors acknowledge support from Kutay Icoz, Urartu S. Seker, Recep Ahan and Elif D. Ergul for biological experiments. The detection system was acquired by financial support from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK, Project No. 215E086).