. 2014 May 12;8(3):036501. doi: 10.1063/1.4874716

TABLE I.

Methods and technologies for cell identification/isolation.

Common cell identification methods
Mechanism type	Differential attributes	Technology			Apparatus or applications	References
Physical	Osmotic tolerance	Hypotonic solution			RBC lysis buffer	15
	Density	Zonal centrifugation			Mononuclear cell isolation buffer	⁶, ^a 16
	Dimension	Inertial force			Size-dependent Hydrodynamic isolation	31, ^a 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
	Dimension	Filtration			Microfluidic chip/membrane filters	32, 33, 34, 35
	Electric susceptibility	Dielectrophoresis/negative dielectrophoresis			DEP/n-DEP chip	36, 37, 38, 39, 40
	Impedance	Impedance-test			Impedance-based cytometers	41, 42, 43, ^a 44 ^a
	Elasticity	Deformability-test			Deformability-based chip	34, 45, 46, 47
	Optical-properties	Forward/side scattering			Flow cytometers	65, 88, 89
	Optical-properties	Raman scattering			Raman spectroscopy	90, 91, 92, 93
Chemical/biological	DNA/RNA profiling	Polymerase chain reaction	Fluorescence labelling gel electrophoresis		Q-PCR/EP-PCR	48, 49, 50, 51
	Antibody specificity	Surface adhesion (trapping cells)	channels	Temperature/pH/light-sensitive gel	Trapping target cells at channel wall	31, 58, 59, 60
			structures		Trapping target cells at pillars	14, ^a 56, ^a 57
			objects		Trapping target cells at beads	61 ^a
		Magnetic beads			Magnetic beads	17, 52, 53, 54, 55
		Immuno-fluorescence		Flow cytometry	Flow cytometers	64, 65, 66
				Microscopy	Cell arrays	67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75
				Microscopy	Fluidic cell chips	6, 76, 77 ^a
	Bio-capability	To form spheroids, endocytose, balance electrolytes			cell chips	57, 94
Integrated system		Using a variety of techniques			Automatic/semi-automatic system	78, 79, ^a 80, 81

Research paper using clinical cancer patient blood.