Advances in microfluidic chip technology for cell analysis.

Abstract

Microfluidic chips play a crucial role in the field of cell analysis. These miniature chips integrate seamlessly across key cell analysis stages, including sample preparation, cell culture, sorting, lysis, and detection. They possess many advantages such as miniaturization, integration, automation, and portability. The size of their microchannels is comparable to that of cells, thus enabling research to be conducted at the single-cell or even subcellular organelle level. They can also simulate the physiological conditions in vivo, conduct non-destructive or minimally destructive detections, and meet the requirements of high-throughput cell analysis, which is beneficial for parallel operations and continuous analysis. This article reviews the technological progress of microfluidic chips, focusing on three major directions: cell sorting and enrichment, single-cell analysis, and dynamic microenvironment simulation. The article also analyzes the challenges faced by this technology, such as cell damage control, handling of multicellular heterogeneity, data interpretation, etc., and proposes coping strategies such as the development of new biomaterials, multimodal integration technology, and artificial intelligence assistance. By combining cutting-edge technologies such as nanotechnology, 3D printing, and organoid culture, the functions of microfluidic chips can be further expanded to enable the simulation and analysis of more complex biological systems and provide important technical support for cell biology research and clinical translation.