A Passive Microfluidic Device Based on Crossflow Filtration for Cell Separation Measurements: A Spectrophotometric Characterization

Abstract

Microfluidic devices have been widely used as a valuable research tool for diagnostic applications. Particularly, they have been related to the successful detection of different diseases and conditions by assessing the mechanical properties of red blood cells (RBCs). Detecting deformability changes in the cells and being able to separate those cells may be a key factor in assuring the success of detection of some blood diseases with diagnostic devices. To detect and separate the chemically modified RBCs (mimicking disease-infected RBCs) from healthy RBCs, the present work proposes a microfluidic device comprising a sequence of pillars with different gaps and nine different outlets used to evaluate the efficiency of the device by measuring the optical absorption of the collected samples. This latter measurement technique was tested to distinguish between healthy RBCs and RBCs chemically modified with glutaraldehyde. The present study indicates that it was possible to detect a slight differences between the samples using an optical absorption spectrophotometric setup. Hence, the proposed microfluidic device has the potential to perform in one single step a partial passive separation of RBCs based on their deformability.

Magnetic Micromachine Using Nickel Nanoparticles for Propelling and Releasing in Indirect Assembly of Cell-Laden Micromodules

“…Mold replication is a batch method for the fabrication of magnetic micromachines [27,28]. As shown in Figure 1a, a multi-layer mold was designed to improve precision and repeatability.…”

Blood Cells Separation and Sorting Techniques of Passive Microfluidic Devices: From Fabrication to Applications

“…Shevkoplyas et al [116] developed a passive microfluidic device with a microvascular network perfusion system for cells separation and for measuring of the RBCs deformability. Faustino et al [117] developed a microfluidic device in PDMS, with pillars and geometric variations, for the passive separation of RBCs, as well as to deform the cells and assess their deformability, by analyzing the acquired images. However, the proposed device is not fully integrated yet, since it still requires an external microscope for images evaluation and an external pumping system [117].…”

“…Faustino et al [117] developed a microfluidic device in PDMS, with pillars and geometric variations, for the passive separation of RBCs, as well as to deform the cells and assess their deformability, by analyzing the acquired images. However, the proposed device is not fully integrated yet, since it still requires an external microscope for images evaluation and an external pumping system [117]. The described examples open new opportunities for research and show that lab-on-a-chip devices have high potential for integration of separation and detection tools in a single microfluidic platform.…”

Bubbles Moving in Blood Flow in a Microchannel Network: The Effect on the Local Hematocrit

“…Another possible alternative is by using an optical absorption spectrophotometric method. Recently, Faustino et al [47] have performed a study with this technique and they were able to detect differences between blood samples with different concentrations. We believe that this optical method will be an excellent reliable approach to measure the local Hct in microfluidic devices.…”