A Review on Recent Trends in the Segregation of Red Blood Cells Using Microfluidic Devices

Abstract

The isolation of Red Blood Cells (RBCs) has become a broad area of research in recent times. The early segregation of RBCs from the blood prevents them from lysis. The segregation of RBCs using traditional techniques like centrifugation has become outdated due to the usage of bulky equipment. This paper reviews the functions of RBCs, the age-old techniques that were practically used to distinguish RBCs, and their drawbacks. The assessment of microfluidic devices which are prevalently used in present-day diagnostics that are promised to replace the bottlenecks posed by the traditional methods is also presented. This review aims to project the recent advancements in microfluidics, their applications, and the segregation of microfluidic particles using them. The modern approaches that can separate RBCs virtually using electroosmotic phenomena like di-electrophoresis are also reviewed. The present scenarios for the separation of RBCs with a FEM tool computer-aided design for virtual analysis are also discussed.