Enhanced separation of aged RBCs by designing channel cross section

Yuanyuan Chen; Yuzhen Feng; Jiandi Wan; Haosheng Chen

doi:10.1063/1.5024598

Enhanced separation of aged RBCs by designing channel cross section

Biomicrofluidics. 2018 Mar 13;12(2):024106. doi: 10.1063/1.5024598. eCollection 2018 Mar.

Authors

Yuanyuan Chen¹, Yuzhen Feng², Jiandi Wan³, Haosheng Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
² School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
³ Department of Microsystem Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York 14623-5608, USA.

Abstract

Prolonged storage will alter the biophysical properties of red blood cells (RBCs), and it decreases the quality of stored blood for blood transfusion. It has been known that less deformable aged RBCs can be separated by margination, but the recognition of the storage time from the separation efficiency of the stiff RBCs is still a challenge. In this study, we realized enhanced separation of aged RBCs from normal RBCs by controlling the channel cross section and demonstrated that the storage time can be deduced from the percentage of the separated RBCs in the stored RBCs. This separation technology helps to reveal the regulation of time on the RBC aging mechanism and offer a new method to separate stiffened cells with high efficiency.