Detection of red blood cell surface antigens by probe-triggered cell collision and flow retardation in an autonomous microfluidic system

Éva Sautner,Eszter L Tóth,Bálint Szabó,József Prechl,Péter Fürjes,Eszter Holczer,Krisztián Papp,Rita Ungai-Salánki

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-01166-9

Abstract

Microfluidic devices exploit combined physical, chemical and biological phenomena that could be unique in the sub-millimeter dimensions. The current goal of development of Point-of-Care (POC) medical devices is to extract the biomedical information from the blood. We examined the characteristics of blood flow in autonomous microfluidic devices with the aim to realize sensitive detection of interactions between particulate elements of the blood and the appropriately modified surfaces of the system. As a model experiment we demonstrated the fast analysis of the AB0 blood group system. We observed that the accumulation of red blood cells immobilized on the capillary wall leads to increased lateral movement of the flowing cells, resulting in the overall selective deceleration of the red blood cell flow column compared to the plasma fraction. We showed that by monitoring the flow rate characteristics in capillaries coated with blood type reagents it is possible to identify red blood cell types. Analysis of hydrodynamic effects governing blood flow by Finite Element Method based modelling supported our observations. Our proof-of-concept results point to a novel direction in blood analysis in autonomous microfluidic systems and also provide the basis for the construction of a simple quantitative device for blood group determination.

Highlights

Medical applications of microfluidic systems hold the promise of miniaturization and accelerated testing for biomarkers or cells
In order to allow the passage of red blood cells (RBC) even when a layer is formed from bound cells, height was chosen to be comparable to twice the breadth of RBC
Genetic testing can determine variability in genes that define molecular properties of antigens displayed by RBC6 and by other cell types

Summary

Introduction

Medical applications of microfluidic systems hold the promise of miniaturization and accelerated testing for biomarkers or cells. Blood is a fluid tissue comprising particulate elements and dissolved molecules. It is the most often sampled human tissue because of relatively easy availability and because of the wealth of information it carries. Of. AB A & B — the particulate elements red blood cells (RBC) are the most abundant with numbers in the range of 4 to 5 million cells per microliter. AB A & B — the particulate elements red blood cells (RBC) are the most abundant with numbers in the range of 4 to 5 million cells per microliter This accounts for approximately 50% of the blood volume and an enormous surface area owing to the biconcave disc shape of the cells. In the case of AB0 blood typing group system RBC display A and/or B type antigen on the surface and antibodies are present in the plasma against the non-expressed antigen (Table 1)

Methods

Results

Conclusion