Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The loss of the red blood cells (RBCs) deformability is related with many human diseases,
such as malaria, hereditary spherocytosis, sickle cell disease, or renal diseases. Hence, during the
last years, a variety of technologies have been proposed to gain insights into the factors a ecting the
RBCs deformability and their possible direct association with several blood pathologies. In this work,
we present a simple microfluidic tool that provides the assessment of motions and deformations of
RBCs of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients, under a well-controlled microenvironment. All of
the flow studies were performed within a hyperbolic converging microchannels where single-cell
deformability was assessed under a controlled homogeneous extensional flow field. By using a
passive microfluidic device, RBCs passing through a hyperbolic-shaped contraction were measured
by a high-speed video microscopy system, and the velocities and deformability ratios (DR) calculated.
Blood samples from 27 individuals, including seven healthy controls and 20 having ESKD with or
without diabetes, were analysed. The obtained data indicates that the proposed device is able to
detect changes in DR of the RBCs, allowing for distinguishing the samples from the healthy controls
and the patients. Overall, the deformability of ESKD patients with and without diabetes type II
is lower in comparison with the RBCs from the healthy controls, with this di erence being more
evident for the group of ESKD patients with diabetes. RBCs from ESKD patients without diabetes
elongate on average 8% less, within the hyperbolic contraction, as compared to healthy controls;
whereas, RBCs from ESKD patients with diabetes elongate on average 14% less than the healthy
controls. The proposed strategy can be easily transformed into a simple and inexpensive diagnostic
microfluidic system to assess blood cells deformability due to the huge progress in image processing
and high-speed microvisualization technology.
Description
Keywords
Blood on chips Cell deformability Chronic renal disease Diabetes Hyperbolic microchannel Microfluidic devices Red blood cells (RBCs)
Citation
Faustino, Vera; Rodrigues, Raquel O.; Pinho, Diana; Costa, Elísio; Santos-Silva, Alice; Miranda, Vasco; Amaral, Joana S.; Lima, Rui (2019). A microfluidic deformability assessment of pathological red blood cells flowing in a hyperbolic converging microchannel. Micromachines. ISSN 2072-666X. 10, p. 1-15