Engineered membranes for residual cell trapping on microfluidic blood plasma separation systems. A comparison between porous and nanofibrous membranes

Abstract

Blood-based clinical diagnostics require challenging limit-of-detection for low abundance, circulating molecules in plasma. Micro-scale blood plasma separation (BPS) has achieved remarkable results in terms of plasma yield or purity, but rarely achieving both at the same time.Here, we proposed the first use of electrospun polylactic-acid (PLA) membranes as filters to remove residual cell population from continuous hydrodynamic-BPS devices. The membranes hydrophilicity was improved by adopting a wet chemistry approach via surface aminolysis as demonstrated through Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Water Contact Angle analysis.The usability of PLA-membranes was assessed through degradation measurements at extreme pH values. Plasma purity and hemolysis were evaluated on plasma samples with residual red blood cell content (1, 3, 5% hematocrit) corresponding to output from existing hydrodynamic BPS systems.Commercially available membranes for BPS were used as benchmark. Results highlighted that the electrospun membranes are suitable for downstream residual cell removal from blood, permitting the collection of up to 2 mL of pure and low-hemolyzed plasma. Fluorometric DNA quantification revealed that electrospun membranes did not significantly affect the concentration of circulating DNA. PLA-based electrospun membranes can be combined with hydrodynamic BPS in order to achieve high volume plasma separation at over 99% plasma purity.

Solution-Based Processing for Scaffold Fabrication in Tissue Engineering Applications: A Brief Review

“…Generally, the choice of the material for solution-based technologies relies on the desired morphology, function, and application of the produced scaffold, including biopolymers such as polycaprolactone (PCL) [ 9 , 10 ], polylactide (PLA) [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], poly(lactide-co-glycolide; PLGA) [ 14 ], poly(vinyl) alcohol (PVA) [ 15 ], gelatin [ 16 ], chitosan [ 10 ], and collagen [ 17 , 18 ]. According to the expected structural and mechanical performance for tissue replacement, different solution-based fabrication methods could be applied ( Figure 1 ), such as freeze-drying [ 17 , 19 , 20 ] ( Figure 1 a), Thermally or Diffusion Induced Phase Separation (TIPS ( Figure 1 b) or DIPS ( Figure 1 c)) [ 21 , 22 ], electrospinning [ 23 , 24 ] ( Figure 1 d), or a valuable combination of them [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”