Abstract
Cell analysis is of great significance for the exploration of human diseases and health. However, there are not many techniques for high-throughput cell analysis in the simulated cell microenvironment. The high designability of the microfluidic chip enables multiple kinds of cells to be co-cultured on the chip, with other functions such as sample preprocessing and cell manipulation. Mass spectrometry (MS) can detect a large number of biomolecules without labelling. Therefore, the application of the microfluidic chip coupled with MS has represented a major branch of cell analysis over the past decades. Here, we concisely introduce various microfluidic devices coupled with MS used for cell analysis. The main functions of microfluidic devices are described first, followed by introductions of different interfaces with different types of MS. Then, their various applications in cell analysis are highlighted, with an emphasis on cell metabolism, drug screening, and signal transduction. Current limitations and prospective trends of microfluidics coupled with MS are discussed at the end.
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We acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21727814, 81973569 and 21621003).
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Wanling Zhangis a PhD student in the research group of Prof. J.-M. Lin in the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, China. She got her BS from the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, China. Her current research focus is cell analysis on microfluidic devices coupled with mass spectrometry and fluorescence.
Qiang Zhangreceived his B. S. degree from the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University in 2017. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate under the instruction of Prof. J.-M. Lin at Tsinghua University. His is focusing on the development of open microfluidic methods for single cell manipulation including adhesion measurement and cell self-repair analysis.
Jin-Ming Linreceived his BS from Fuzhou University in 1984 and PhD from Tokyo Metropolitan University in 1997. He had studied and worked in Showa University and Tokyo Metropolitan University during 1992 - 2002. He is currently a professor of Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University since 2004, and was selected as Cheung Kung Scholars Professor of Ministry of Education, China at 2008. He is a Fellow of Royal Chemical Society, a Supervisor of Chinese Chemical Society. His current research is focused on cell analysis, microfluidics with mass spectrometry, and chemiluminescence.
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Zhang, W., Zhang, Q. & Lin, JM. Cell Analysis on Microfluidics Combined with Mass Spectrometry. ANAL. SCI. 37, 249–260 (2021). https://doi.org/10.2116/analsci.20R006
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2116/analsci.20R006