Emerging microengineered tools for functional analysis and phenotyping of blood cells

Abstract

The available techniques for assessing blood cell functions are limited considering the various types of blood cells and their diverse functions. In the past decade, rapid advancement in microengineering has enabled an array of blood cell functional measurements that are difficult or impossible to achieve using conventional bulk platforms. Such miniaturized blood cell assay platforms also provide attractive capabilities of reducing chemical consumption, cost, assay time, as well as exciting opportunities of device integration, automation, and assay standardization. This review summarizes these contemporary microengineering tools and discusses their promising potential for constructing accurate in vitro models and rapid clinical diagnosis using minimal amount of whole blood samples.

Filling of Irregular Channels with Round Cross-Section: Modeling Aspects to Study the Properties of Porous Materials

“…In the case of channels, which have an irregular shape, Chu and Ng [ 48 ] developed an algorithm to model a single-phase flow in a sinusoidal shaped tube. The tube was tessellated to obtain a description of its morphology.…”

“…For modeling reasons, the structure of a porous material is usually described in terms of different kinds of cylinders, frustums, cavities or slits, filled by spheres. These geometries appear in a wide range of contexts, as studies of liquid/mass transport properties [ 9 , 10 , 18 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ], flows [ 10 , 32 , 33 , 34 ], adsorption-desorption of gases [ 20 , 35 ], drainage-capillarity [ 5 , 36 , 37 , 38 ], dispersion in a porous medium and zeolites [ 17 , 18 , 39 , 40 ], diffusion of gases [ 41 , 42 ], viscose flows [ 43 ], liquid filtration [ 8 , 19 , 44 ], water desalination [ 11 ], water and protein permeability [ 22 , 25 , 45 ], fluids [ 6 , 21 , 33 , 46 ], targeted drug delivery [ 47 ], blood analysis and signaling processes in biology [ 48 , 49 ], as well as general studies, like e.g., porosity nature [ 13 ] or characterization of porous solids [ 16 , 50 ].…”

Potential Point-of-Care Microfluidic Devices to Diagnose Iron Deficiency Anemia

“…Extensive research has been conducted to invent and improve new and existing microfluidic point-of-care (POC) diagnostic devices. One of the prominent POC-based technology developed for the medical industry uses microfluidics [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Today, however, few microfluidic POC diagnosis tests are available in the market for detecting various diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [ 18 ], malaria [ 19 , 20 ], dengue virus [ 21 ], and rare cell mutations [ 22 ].…”

Surface modification on polydimethylsiloxane-based microchannels with fragmented poly(l-lactic acid) nanosheets

“…16 These unique studies inspired us to attempt to use fragmented PLLA nanosheets to coat PDMS-based microchannels, which have been attracting attention for their potential applications as human blood vessel mimics in the hematological field. [17][18][19][20] Accordingly, some typical modification methods have been reported as a useful way to increase the blood compatibility of PDMS microchannels, such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) graft, 21,22 heparin, 23 and betaine polymers coating. 24 In this paper, we developed a novel method for modifying PDMS and examined the surface properties of the modified PDMS, particularly the capacity for platelet adhesion.…”