Hydrodynamic blood plasma separation in microfluidic channels

Abstract

The separation of red blood cells from plasma flowing in microchannels is possible by biophysical effects such as the Zweifach-Fung bifurcation law. In the present study, daughter channels are placed alongside a main channel such that cells and plasma are collected separately. The device is aimed to be a versatile but yet very simple module producing high-speed and high-efficiency plasma separation. The resulting lab-on-a-chip is manufactured using biocompatible materials. Purity efficiency is measured for mussel and human blood suspensions as different parameters, such as flow rate and geometries of the parent and daughter channels are varied. The issues of blood plasma separation at the microscale are discussed in relation to the different regimes of flow. Results are compared with those obtained by other researchers in the field of micro-separation of blood.

Progress towards the design and numerical analysis of a 3D microchannel biochip separator

“…The current research presented in this article is developed from original studies carried out on a 2D Tshaped microchannel separator [31] (Fig. 1).…”

“…Based on Zweifach-Fung bifurcation law [25], when the flow rate ratio reaches 8:1 and above, nearly all plasma can be separated from the blood via the daughter channel with low flow rates [17]. RBC behaviour is closely related to Reynolds number and the viscosity of the bulk fluid [31,36]. When the Reynolds number is higher than 1 but still in the laminar regime, RBCs flip around themselves, a behaviour generally referred to as tumbling motion.…”

Hydrodynamic Assists Magnetophoreses Rare Cancer cells Separation in Microchannel Simulation and Experimental Verifications

“…Different fabricated microfluidic platforms have shown their high capability in the detection and separation of targeted cells from a mixture, which is highly demanded in biological and clinical research. Due to low costs, small sample volumes, fast processing times, large surface-to volume and the ability to efficiently isolating single cell, and thanks to features available in microfluidic platforms [10],different methods based on microfluidic cell separation were established including dielectrophoresis [11] , acoustophoresis [12] and hydrodynamics [13]. There are many microfluidic platforms that have been studied and utilized for CTCs separation based on biochemical methods [14] [15].…”

Microchip-based Plasma Separation from Whole Blood via Axial Migration of Blood Cells

“…[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Plasma has been isolated by various methods: through an external force in the case of centrifugation, 7,10 or through capillary force, 11 dielectrophoresis, 12,13 magnetophoresis 14,15 and acoustophoresis, 16 filtration by microbeads, 17 and others. [18][19][20][21][22] Compact-disk-type microchips for plasma separation utilize centrifugation for accelerating the sedimentation of erythrocytes and metering the plasma or capillary force for the extraction of plasma. 7,10,11 However, these methods lead to the rupture of blood cells owing to high shear forces.…”