A Microfluidic Device with Integrated Sonication and Immunoprecipitation for Sensitive Epigenetic Assays

Autor: Chang Lu, Zhenning Cao
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2016
Předmět:
Zdroj: Analytical Chemistry
ISSN: 1520-6882
0003-2700
Popis: Epigenetic studies increasingly require analysis of a small number of cells that are of one specific type and derived from patients or animals. In this report, we demonstrate a simple microfluidic device that integrates sonication and immunoprecipitation (IP) for epigenetic assays, such as chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and methylated DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP). By incorporating an ultrasonic transducer with a microfluidic chamber, we implemented microscale sonication for both shearing chromatin/DNA and mixing/washing of IP beads. Such integration allowed highly sensitive tests starting with 100 cross-linked cells for ChIP or 500 pg of genomic DNA for MeDIP (compared to 10(6)-10(7) cells for ChIP and 1-10 μg of DNA for MeDIP in conventional assays). The entire on-chip process of sonication and IP took only 1 h. Our tool will be useful for highly sensitive epigenetic studies based on a small quantity of sample.
Databáze: OpenAIRE