Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Lab Chip. 2014 Feb 7;14(3):577-83. doi: 10.1039/c3lc51151k.
Stored red blood cells (RBCs) show progressive deformability changes during blood banking/storage. Their deformability changes over an 8 weeks' storage period were measured using a microfluidic device. Hydrodynamic focusing controls the orientation and position of individual RBCs within the microchannel. High-speed imaging (5000 frames s(-1)) captures the dynamic deformation behavior of the cells, and together with automated image analysis, enables the characterization of over 1000 RBCs within 3 minutes. Multiple parameters including deformation index (DI), time constant (shape recovery rate), and RBC circularity were quantified. Compared to previous studies on stored RBC deformability, our results include a significantly higher number of cells (>1000 cells per sample vs. a few to tens of cells per sample) and, for the first time, reveal deformation changes of stored RBCs when traveling through human-capillary-like microchannels. Contrary to existing knowledge, our results demonstrate that the deformation index of RBCs under folding does not change significantly over blood storage. However, significant differences exist in time constants and circularity distribution widths, which can be used to quantify stored RBC quality or age.
储存的红细胞（RBC）在血库/储存过程中表现出逐渐的变形能力变化。使用微流控设备测量了它们在 8 周储存期内的变形能力变化。流体动力学聚焦控制单个 RBC 在微通道内的方向和位置。高速成像（5000 帧/秒）捕捉细胞的动态变形行为，并且与自动图像分析相结合，能够在 3 分钟内对超过 1000 个 RBC 进行特征化。量化了多个参数，包括变形指数（DI）、时间常数（形状恢复率）和 RBC 圆度。与之前关于储存 RBC 变形性的研究相比，我们的结果包括明显更高数量的细胞（每个样本超过 1000 个细胞，而每个样本几个到几十个细胞），并且首次揭示了在通过类似于人毛细血管的微通道时储存 RBC 的变形变化。与现有知识相反，我们的结果表明，在血液储存过程中，折叠下 RBC 的变形指数没有显著变化。然而，时间常数和圆形度分布宽度存在显著差异，可用于量化储存 RBC 的质量或年龄。
