DNA separation using cellulose derivatives and PEO by PDMS microchip

Poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) has been employed as a microchip material for DNA separation in microfluidic condition. Different sieving molecules such as cellulose derivatives having glucose building block (methyl cellulose (MC), hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), and hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC)) and polyethylene oxide (PEO) having linear (ring-opened ethylene oxide) unit were used and their performance was compared in terms of separation efficiency and resolution. In general, PEO showed better separation performance than cellulose derivatives probably due to the nature of linear shape polymer conformation. It was possible to perform at least 15 consecutive running with 1.2% PEO at the electric field strength around 200 V/cm. Fast analysis of the standard φX 174 RF DNA/Hae III (less than 130s) was obtained with the number of the theoretical plate around 250,000/m. Our PMDS microchip was applied to the measurement of CAG repeat number, which is related to male infertile disease.