Laparoscopic splenectomy for splenic rupture secondary to metastatic choriocarcinoma

Tan Ming Ngan Aloysius,Vishalkumar G Shelat 한국간담췌외과학회 2018 Annals of hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery Vol.22 No.1

Gestational choriocarcinoma is a rare and aggressive type of gestational trophoblastic neoplasia, which is characterized by early vascular invasion and widespread metastases. Choriocarcinoma metastasizes hematogenously, and bleeding from metastases is common. Splenic rupture from a metastatic tumour is exceedingly rare, with only a few reports. We report a case of a 41-year-old female presenting with acute abdomen and haemorrhagic shock secondary to splenic rupture from metastatic choriocarcinoma, which was managed with emergency laparoscopic splenectomy.

Development of a 2-Chamber Culture System for Impedimetric Monitoring of Cell-cell Interaction

Kin Fong Lei,Meng-Tsan Tsai,Ming-Hong Zhong,Chia-Hao Huang,Ngan-Ming Tsang,Ming-Yih Lee 한국바이오칩학회 2017 BioChip Journal Vol.11 No.2

In cancer research, study of cell-cell interaction is important to understand tumor initiation, progression, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance. Conventionally, transwell system was adopted and cell proliferation was quantified by end-point bio-assays. The operations are labor-intensive and time-consuming while studying of the dynamic cellular responses of cell-cell interaction. Although impedance measurement was suggested to be a promising technique to monitor cellular responses, electrodes cannot be integrated into the transwell for the measurement purpose. In this work, a 2-chamber culture system incorporated with impedance measurement technique was developed to quantitatively study cell-cell interaction. The chamber was composed of 2 sub-chambers separated with a barrier. By this design, two types of cells could be independently cultured and concurrently monitored under common medium supplied. Cell-cell interaction was demonstrated by aberrant cell proliferation induced by the EGF secreted from the transfected cells cultured on another sub-chamber. Real-time and non-invasive monitoring of cell-cell interaction was successfully demonstrated. This work provides a practical solution for monitoring the dynamic cellular responses of cellcell interaction during the culture course. It is a reliable and convenient platform and facilitate more quantitative assessments in cancer research.

Co-Culturing Cancer Cells and Normal Cells in a Biochip under Electrical Stimulation

Kin Fong Lei,Shao-Chieh Hsieh,Rei-Lin Kuo,Ngan-Ming Tsang 한국바이오칩학회 2018 BioChip Journal Vol.12 No.3

The ideal cancer therapeutic strategy is to inhibit the tumor with minimal influence on the normal tissue. Recently, applying an alternating electric field for inhibiting tumor was developed; but, it has not been adopted to be one of the regular therapeutic options. More basic scientific evidence is needed to clarify the efficacy and safety. In the current study, co-culturing cancer cells and normal cells under the electrical stimulation was conducted to provide evidence of this novel cancer therapy. A microfluidic cell culture biochip has been developed and consisted of nine culture chambers incorporating with stimulating electrodes. Cells cultured in the chamber received uniform electric field and cell viability was studied during the culture course. The electric field perturbs cell division and the correlation between cell proliferation rate and inhibition effect was studied among five cell lines, i.e., Huh7, HeLa, TW06, BM1, and HEL299. The results confirmed that cells with higher proliferation rate responded to a higher inhibition. In addition, co-culturing cancer cells and normal cells was conducted to mimic in vivo microenvironment that consists of both cancer and stromal cells. The cancer cells and normal cells were respectively transduced with green fluorescent protein and red fluorescent protein in order to differentiate the cells in a same culture chamber. During the culture course, the electric field was applied to the culture chamber and both cells simultaneously received the field. The results indicated that the growth of the cancer cells were inhibited while the normal cells were maintained. These results provided the evidence of the therapeutic efficacy and safety. Moreover, the microfluidic cell culture biochip could be used for the systematic and precise investigations of the cellular responses under the electrical stimulation.

A Reagent-Ready-on-Chip Microfluidic Immunoassay System for Rapid Detection of Influenza A H1N1 and H3N2 Viruses

Kin Fong Lei,Jun-Liang Liu,Chia-Hao Huang,Rei-Lin Kuo,Ngan-Ming Tsang 한국바이오칩학회 2016 BioChip Journal Vol.10 No.1

Development of effective disease screening method is the best approach for the control of infectious diseases. However, conventional screening methods require to operate in well-equipped laboratory. That makes the screening operation expensive and time-consuming. In this work, a reagent-ready-on-chip microfluidic immunoassay system was developed and rapid detection of influenza A H1N1 and H3N2 viruses was demonstrated to show its simplicity and rapidity. The microfluidic system integrated 4 single-stroke thermopneumatic actuators and a reaction chamber. All related reagents were pre-installed in the system and manipulated automatically for indirect immunoassay. Detection of influenza A H1N1 and H3N2 viruses based on its internal structure protein, i.e., nucleoprotein (NP), was demonstrated using the system. Result was represented by colorimetric signal in the reaction chamber. The use of thermopneumatic actuation could achieve fluid manipulation without external assistive equipment and colorimetric result could be observed directly without the need of external dedicated detector. Influenza virus screening could be completed around 1 hour with less sample volume (20 μL) and reagent volume (50 μL). The system achieved one-step operation of immunoassay. It is highly integrated and has potential to be developed to portable devices to realize rapid diagnostics in remote environment and clinics without well-equipped facility. Development of effective disease screening method is the best approach for the control of infectious diseases. However, conventional screening methods require to operate in well-equipped laboratory. That makes the screening operation expensive and time-consuming. In this work, a reagent-ready-on-chip microfluidic immunoassay system was developed and rapid detection of influenza A H1N1 and H3N2 viruses was demonstrated to show its simplicity and rapidity. The microfluidic system integrated 4 single-stroke thermopneumatic actuators and a reaction chamber. All related reagents were pre-installed in the system and manipulated automatically for indirect immunoassay. Detection of influenza A H1N1 and H3N2 viruses based on its internal structure protein, i.e., nucleoprotein (NP), was demonstrated using the system. Result was represented by colorimetric signal in the reaction chamber. The use of thermopneumatic actuation could achieve fluid manipulation without external assistive equipment and colorimetric result could be observed directly without the need of external dedicated detector. Influenza virus screening could be completed around 1 hour with less sample volume (20 μL) and reagent volume (50 μL). The system achieved one-step operation of immunoassay. It is highly integrated and has potential to be developed to portable devices to realize rapid diagnostics in remote environment and clinics without well-equipped facility.

Development of Graphene-based Sensors on Paper Substrate for the Measurement of pH Value of Analyte

Chia-Yi Lee,Kin Fong Lei,Shiao-Wen Tsai,Ngan-Ming Tsang 한국바이오칩학회 2016 BioChip Journal Vol.10 No.3

With excellent properties of graphene material, a number of graphene-based devices have been developed with excellent performance in the past decades. However, difficulty of processing graphene material is a hurdle for its practical realization. In this work, we propose to use vacuum filtration process as the major technique to fabricate graphene-based devices. This technique is simple and effective to practically realize graphene-based sensors on paper substrate, which are equipped with the advantages of low cost, simplicity, flexibility, and disposability. In order to show the functionality of the sensor, determination of pH value of analyte was demonstrated by direct measurement of the resistance across the sensor. Results showed that the sensor has the sensitivity of 30.8 Ω/pH and high linearity (R2=0.9282). Since graphene material can be functionalized by various molecules, it is expected that the graphene-based sensor can be further developed to realize more chemical and biological assays with high sensitivity and specificity for remote environment.