Microfluidic deformability cytometry: A review

Cell deformability plays an important role in cellular processes and functions, including cell growth and differentiation, as well as cell transfer and cell cycle. Measuring deformability at the single-cell level has attracted great interest in biomedicine owing to its importance in various applications, such as cell separation, disease diagnosis, and drug screening. Therefore, an accurate, robust, and high-throughput method for measuring single-cell deformability is urgently required. Microfluidics has become a promising tool for single-cell analysis because it greatly reduces operational complexity and reagent consumption, while enabling the integration of multiple functions. In this review, we discuss recent advances in microfluidic technologies for single-cell deformability analysis. Based on the different methods of stress generation, microfluidic technologies can be divided into extrusion, hydrodynamic, electric stretching, optical stretching, and acoustic stretching deformability cytometry. Herein, we discuss the application scenarios, advantages, and disadvantages of these microfluidic-based approaches. In addition, future research directions are also discussed, such as how to improve the detection performance, integrate various detection technologies, and increase their application capability in the medical field. [Display omitted] •This review provides a comprehensive overview of the most recent advances on microfluidic deformability cytometry.•The effects of the cellular components on cell deformability are described.•The advantages, limitations, application scenarios, and parameters of various microfluidics technologies are presented.•The strategies for improving the performance of microfluidic deformability cytometry are discussed.•The multifunctional integration of microfluidic deformability cytometry and its potential application are prospected.