Table 1.

Overview of single cell isolation techniques.

Techniques	Throughput	Advantage	Disadvantage	References
Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS)	High	High specificity multiple parameters	Large amount of material, dissociated cells, high skill needed	Gross et al., 2015
Magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS)	High	High specificity, cost effective	Dissociated cells, non-specific cell capture	Welzel et al., 2015
Laser capture microdissection (LCM)	Low	Intact fixed and live tissue	Contaminated by neighboring cells, high skill needed	Espina et al., 2007; Datta et al., 2015
Manual cell picking	Low	Intact live tissue	High skill needed, low throughput	Citri et al., 2012
Microfluidic	High	Low sample consumption, integrated with amplification	Dissociated cells, high skill needed	Bhagat et al., 2010; Lecault et al., 2012