The main function of red blood cells (RBCs) is to circulate oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the human body. Accurate modeling of the transportation mechanism of RBCs inside microvessels will lead to better clinical diagnosis and prophylaxis of blood disease. This study combined hydrodynamics and basic circuit theory to model the fluid mechanisms of the circulation of blood cells inside capillaries. The variations of physical properties inside the capillaries due to clogging by RBCs were analyzed. A lab-on-a-chip for RBC deformability diagnosis was fabricated using soft lithography. Real experiments were conducted to verify the theoretical analysis and illustrated the capability of the device which was able to observe pathological changes in RBC deformability. The proposed device could be a convenient tool in the field of blood rheology and clinical applications

Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) is one of the most commonly used biodegradable, biocompatible materials. Nanostructured PLGA has immense potential for application in tissue engineering. In this article we discuss a novel approach for the fabrication of PLGA microvessel scaffolds with nanostructured inner walls. In this novel nano-patterning approach, the thermal reflow technique is first adapted to fabricate a semi-cylindrical photoresist master mold. A thin film of titanium and a thin film of aluminum are sputtered in sequence on the semi-cylindrical microvessel network. Aluminum foil anodization is then executed to transform the aluminum thin film into a porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) film. During the casting process a PLGA solution is cast on the AAO film to build up semi-cylindrical PLGA microstructures with nanostructured inner walls after which inductive coupled plasma (ICP) is implemented to assist bonding of the two PLGA structures. The result is the building of a network of microchannels with nano-patterned inner walls. Bovine endothelial cells (BECs) are carefully cultured in the scaffold via semi-dynamic seeding for 7 days. Observations show that the BECs grew more separately in a nano-patterned microvessel scaffold than they did in a smooth surface scaffold.

The main function of red blood cells (RBCs) is to circulate oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the human body. Accurate modeling of the transportation mechanism of RBCs inside microvessels will lead to better clinical diagnosis and prophylaxis of blood disease. This study combined hydrodynamics and basic circuit theory to produce a model and calculate the fluid mechanisms of the circulation of blood cells inside microvessels. The variations of physical properties inside the microvessels due to clogging by RBCs were analyzed. A lab-on-a-chip for RBC diagnosis was fabricated using soft lithography. Real experiments were conducted to verify the theoretical analysis and illustrate the capability of the device which was able to detect pathological changes in RBC deformability. The proposed device could be a convenient tool in the field of blood rheology and clinical applications.