Red Blood Cells Motion in a Glass Microchannel

Abstract

Abstract. The motion of the red blood cells (RBCs) flowing in microvessels and microchannels depend on several effects, such as hematocrit (Hct), geometry, and temperature. According to our knowledge, the effect of the temperature on RBC motion was never investigated at a microscale level. Hence, the aim of the present work is to determine the effect of the temperature on the RBC's trajectories and to investigate the best approximation of the trajectories through a nonlinear optimization. In vitro human blood was pumped through a 100 µm circular microchannel and by using a confocal micro-PTV system the RBC's trajectories were measured at different temperatures, i.e., 25 • C and 37 • C. In this study we measured the motion of forty cells flowing in the middle of the microchannel and applied different functions to approximate its behavior.

A Comparison between a Manual and Automatic Method to Characterize Red Blood Cell Trajectories

“…To compare the consistency of both methods we decided to determine the better approximation for the data by using a nonlinear optimization [10]. Hence, we consider three different functions [5] (polynomials, sum of trigonometric functions and a sum of exponential functions) defined as:…”

“…Blood flow in microcirculation is crucial for the normal function of tissues and organs. Detailed study of blood cells flowing in microvessels and microchannels is essential to provide a better understanding on the blood rheological properties and disorders in microcirculation [1][2][3][4][5]. Image analysis plays an extremely important role to obtain information about the blood rheology.…”

Automatic tracking of labeled red blood cells in microchannels

“…Blood flow in microcirculation is crucial for the normal function of tissues and organs. Detailed study of blood cells flowing in microvessels and microchannels is essential to provide a better understanding on the blood rheological properties and disorders in microcirculation . One of the most reliable ways to measure velocity fields in microcirculation is using Eulerian methods, such as the conventional micro‐Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) or the confocal micro‐PIV .…”

“…The main advantage of this method is the ability to obtain detailed quantitative information on the motion of particles and cells flowing within a working fluid with high hematocrits (Hcts) close to in vivo condition. Although, this method is becoming indispensable, in several biomedical fields such as cell biology and microcirculation , most of these studies have been performed with manual tracking methods. For blood flow in microvessels, where there is a large number of interacting cells, manual tracking methods have been used to accurately track individual deformable cells flowing through glass capillaries , straight polydimethylsiloxane microchannels , stenosis , hyperbolic contractions , and bifurcations .…”