Method to purify and analyze heterogeneous senescent cell populations using a microfluidic filter with uniform fluidic profile

To precisely purify and study aged (senescent) cells, we have designed, fabricated, and demonstrated a novel diamond-structure (DS) microfluidic filter. Nonuniform flow velocities within the microfilter channel can compromise microfluidic filter performance, but with this new diamond structure, further optimized via simulation, we achieve a uniform microfilter flow field, improving the throughput of size-based separation of senescent cells, as obtained by 39-passaged human dermal fibroblasts. After separating these aged cells into two groups, consisting of large- and small-sized cells, we assessed senescence by measuring lipofuscin accumulation and β-galactosidase activity. Our results reveal that even though these senescent cells had been equivalently passaged in culture, a high degree of size distribution and senescent phenotype heterogeneity was observed. In particular, the smaller-sized cells tended to express a younger phenotype while the larger aged cells demonstrated an older phenotype. We suggest that size-based separation of senescent cells, subtyped into small- and large-sized cohorts, offers an alternative method to purify such aged cells, thereby enabling more precise study of the mechanisms of aging, autophagy impairment, and rejuvenation.