Nanocellulose Hydrogel for Blood Typing Tests

Abstract

The gel test is the most prevalent method for the forward and reverse blood typing tests. It relies on the controlled centrifugation of red blood cells (RBCs) and antibodies through a gel column. This noncontinuous matrix is currently based on microbeads that often lack sensitivity. For the first time, nanocellulose hydrogel is demonstrated as a sustainable and reliable medium for gel-based blood typing diagnostics. Gels with a minimum of 0.3 wt % TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (0.92 mmol/g of carboxyl content) separate agglutinated and individual RBCs in the forward test. The addition of glycine is able to balance the osmotic pressure and reduce hemolysis to 5%, while retaining the electrostatic repulsion responsible for the gel network structure and its rheological properties. For the reverse typing, cellulose nanofibers are chemically cross-linked with hexamethylenediamine (HMDA), increasing the gel yield point 8-fold. Sodium chloride is added to achieve the osmolality found in the human plasma and limit cell lysis to 15%, without affecting the gel colloidal stability. Nanocellulose hydrogel constitutes a performant, low cost, and green soft material, providing clear and well-defined results for both blood grouping tests.

Pattern formation in drying blood drops

“…Once the RBC have completely deformed into a structure with volume fraction unity, there is no further flow of solvent through the consolidated region and the droplet reverts to the one-dimensional drying outlined above. Curvello et al [ 51 ] showed agglutinated RBCs to adopt a close-packed hexagonal shape, demonstrating that red cells can deform to form a continuous material. Therefore, we postulate that the thickness of the consolidated region when it ceases inward movement is a direct measure of the RBC rigidity.…”

Flipped Quick-Response Code Enables Reliable Blood Grouping

“…Rapid and reliable blood grouping plays an essential role in various biomedical and forensic scenarios. − Although numerous approaches have been proposed to improve the analytical accuracy over the last century, the tube or gel card method still dominates blood grouping approaches in core laboratories, , mainly because of its well-recognized reliability and accuracy. Unfortunately, these classical blood grouping techniques have failed to meet the requirements of rapid, easy-to-use blood grouping in a field-deployable manner for outdoor screening and emergency rescue, which is largely due to the limitation of their intrinsic readout mechanisms, considered as being cumbersome and time-consuming and requiring complicated apparatus. , Alternatively, a slide assay was taken for granted as the only candidate for rapid testing in resource-scarce scenarios, posing a major risk in misclassification of the blood types owing to its inefficiency in recognizing weak agglutination. , …”

“…Unfortunately, these classical blood grouping techniques have failed to meet the requirements of rapid, easyto-use blood grouping in a field-deployable manner for outdoor screening and emergency rescue, which is largely due to the limitation of their intrinsic readout mechanisms, considered as being cumbersome and time-consuming and requiring complicated apparatus. 6,7 Alternatively, a slide assay was taken for granted as the only candidate for rapid testing in resource-scarce scenarios, posing a major risk in misclassification of the blood types owing to its inefficiency in recognizing weak agglutination. 8,9 Paper-based colorimetric assays, featuring rapidity and convenience, hold great promise for point-of-care (POC) blood typing with naked-eye readouts.…”

Rapidly freeze‐dried human red blood cells for pre‐transfusion alloantibody testing reagents

“…In contrast, when the antigen–antibody reaction did not occur, the non‐agglutinated cells go to the bottom of the microtube, forming a pellet post centrifugation. RBCs agglutinated based on their size, viscosity, molecular charge and surface antigen exposure 44 . Hence, to evaluate the functional preservation of the FDRBCs, a forward agglutination test was run with CAT assay 45,46 …”

“…According to literature, there is a high dependency of viscosity and concentration for trehalose 47,48 . The trehalose might agglomerate around the cell resulting in auto‐agglutination of RBCs and cause false positive results 44,49 . The false positives might cause financial and clinical impacts 50‐52 .…”