Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Epublish 15 citations
PubMed: 35315465 DOI: 10.1039/d1lc01133b
Feature tracking microfluidic analysis reveals differential roles of viscosity and friction in sickle cell blood.
Lab Chip 22(8):1565-1575
Authors: Hannah M Szafraniec, José M Valdez, Elizabeth Iffrig, Wilbur A Lam, John M Higgins, Philip Pearce, David K Wood
Affiliations
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
- Department of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
- Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
- Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
- Center for Systems Biology and Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- Department of Mathematics, University College London, London, UK.
- Institute for the Physics of Living Systems, University College London, London, UK.
Abstract
Characterization of blood flow rheology in hematological disorders is critical for understanding disease pathophysiology. Existing methods to measure blood rheological parameters are limited in their physiological relevance, and there is a need for new tools that focus on the microcirculation and extract properties at finer resolution than overall flow resistance. Herein, we present a method that combines microfluidic systems and powerful object-tracking computational technologies with mathematical modeling to separate the red blood cell flow profile into a bulk component and a wall component. We use this framework to evaluate differential contributions of effective viscosity and wall friction to the overall resistance in blood from patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) under a range of oxygen tensions. Our results demonstrate that blood from patients with SCD exhibits elevated frictional and viscous resistances at all physiologic oxygen tensions. Additionally, the viscous resistance increases more rapidly than the frictional resistance as oxygen tension decreases, which may confound analyses that extract only flow velocities or overall flow resistances. Furthermore, we evaluate the impact of transfusion treatments on the components of the resistance, revealing patient variability in blood properties that may improve our understanding of the heterogeneity of clinical responses to such treatments. Overall, our system provides a new method to analyze patient-specific blood properties and can be applied to a wide range of hematological and vascular disorders.
MeSH
Cells, Therapeutics, Nanotechnology, Blood, Microfluidics, Exhibitions As Topic
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