Antibody based capture and detection of MCF-7 tumor cells using microchannels

Cancer continues to be the leading cause of death in Turkey as in the World. The incidence of cancer has increased depending on population growth and populatin aging in the World. The International Cancer Agency has drawn attention in particular to the increase in breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most common in women cancers and the first reason of death. Today, in the World, 1 of 4 female cancer patients is a breast cancer patient. For these reasons, early diagnosis of cancer and detection of cancer cells in blood or body liquids are very important. A test for detection of circulating tumor cells can be much more sensitive, fast; less invasive, costly and less time consuming. In this study, microchips have been produced to investigate the detection of circulating tumor cells. A surface modification has been applied in microhip channels and these microchannels have been coated with an anti-EpCAM antibody which is spesific to the biomarker of breast cancer cells. Capturing MCF-7 breast cancer cells, a cell line of breast cancer, in microchannels is the aim of this study. For this purpose, MCF-7 cells, spiked in PBS and blood, were injected into the channels. At the end of the experiments, the microchips were examined by Fluorescence microscopy. It is found that MCF-7 cells have been captured in microchannels and capture efficiences are %76±11 (in PBS concentrations) and %65±5 (in blood concentrations). The study reliability and specifity have been verified by repeating the experiments. ANOVA Test (SPSS) has been applied for the study reliability and it is also found that the experiments with different concentrations have not caused a significant effect on capture efficiency.