title: Characterizing osmotic lysis kinetics under microfluidic hydrodynamic focusing for erythrocyte fragility studies.
abstract: The biomechanics of erythrocytes, determined by the membrane integrity and cytoskeletal structure, provides critical information on diseases such as diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction, hypertension, and sickle cell anemia. Here we demonstrate a simple microfluidic tool for examining erythrocyte fragility based on characterizing osmotic lysis kinetics. Hydrodynamic focusing is used for generating rapid dilution of the buffer and producing lysis of erythrocytes during their flow. The lysis kinetics are tracked by monitoring the release of intracellular contents from cells via recording the light intensity of erythrocytes at various locations in the channel. Such release profile reflects sensitively the changes in erythrocyte fragility induced by chemical, heating, and glucose treatment. Our tool provides a simple approach for probing red blood cell fragility in both basic research and clinical settings.
authors.affiliation: Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906, USA.
authors.forename: Yihong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.forename: Despina Nelie
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Loufakis
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects; D006461:Hemolysis / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D007038:Hypotonic Solutions; D042541:Intracellular Space / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D009997:Osmotic Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D007038:Hypotonic Solutions; D012965:Sodium Chloride