Microfluidic Separation of Lymphoblasts for the Isolation of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Using the Human Transferrin Receptor as a Capture Target

© 2017 American Chemical Society. Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is the most prevalent pediatric cancer, and the peripheral blood lymphoblast percentage is an important index for ALL diagnosis and prognosis. We describe a microfluidic device that isolates and enumerates peripheral blood lymphoblasts using affinity separations. The innovative use of a nonspecific ligand allows a widespread "net" for cancer cells, without a priori knowledge of the cancer type. Using lymphoblasts spiked into blood, we simulated leukemia cases with lymphoblast concentrations ranging from 1 to 30% of total leukocytes. Lymphoblasts were isolated using monoclonal antibodies for the Human Transferring Receptor (CD71). Anti-CD71 antibodies were found to be more effective for capturing lymphoblasts than commonly used, ALL-specific antibodies for CD7 and CD10. CCRF-CEM lymphoblasts were isolated in the chip with 82-97% purity, with lower concentrations tested (7%) still showing > 80% purity for cell capture.