Flow‐Through Electroporation of HL‐60 White Blood Cell Suspensions using Nanoporous Membrane Electrodes. Issue 16 (5th July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, Zhiqiang; Akenhead, Michael A.; Sun, Xinghua; Sapper, Harrison; Shin, Hainsworth Y.; Hinds, Bruce. J.
• Is Part Of: Advanced healthcare materials. Volume 5:Issue 16(2016)
• Page Start: 2105
• Page End: 2112
• Publication Date: 2016-07-05
• Subjects: cell electroporation -- electrophoresis pumping -- nanoporous membrane electrodes -- white blood cells; Biomedical materials -- Periodicals; 610.28
• DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201600204
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2192-2640

Abstract

Abstract : A flow‐through electroporation system, based on a novel nanoporous membrane/electrode design, for the delivery of cell wall‐impermeant molecules into model leukocytes, HL‐60 promyelocytes, was demonstrated. The ability to apply low voltages to cell populations, with nm‐scale concentrated electric field in a periodic array, contributes to high cell viability. With applied biases of 1–4V, delivery of target molecules was achieved with 90% viability and up to 65% transfection efficiency. More importantly, the system allowed electrophoretic pumping of molecules from a microscale reservoir across the membrane/electrode system into a microfluidic flow channel for transfection of cells, a design that can reduce reagent amount by eightfold compared to current strategies. The flow‐through system, which forces intimate membrane/electrode contact by using a 10μm channel height, can be easily scaled‐up by adjusting the microfluidic channel geometry and/or the applied voltage pulse frequency to control cell residence times at the cell membrane/electrode interface. The demonstrated system shows promise in clinical applications where low‐cost, high cell viability and high volume transfection methods are needed without the risk of viral vectors. In particular genetic modification of freely mobile white blood cells to either target disease cells or to express desired protein/enzyme biomolecules is an important target platform enabled by this device system. Abstract : A flow‐through electroporation system, based on a nanoporous membrane/electrode design, is reported for the delivery of cell wall‐impermeant molecules into model leukocytes. This system is able to electrophoretically pump molecules from a microscale reservoir across the membrane/electrode system and inject the molecules into the cells, which greatly reduces the amount of expensive reagents used during the transfection process.