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Deformability-based red blood cell separation using a microfluidic device

Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery

Microfluidic cell separation techniques are of great interest since they help rapid medical diagnoses and tests. Deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) is one of them. A DLD device consists of arrays of pillars. Main flow and alignment of the pillars define two different directions. Size-based separation of rigid spherical particles is possible as they follow one of these directions depending on their sizes. However, the separation of non- spherical deformable particles such as red blood cells (RBCs) is more complicated than that due to their intricate dynamics. We study the separation of RBCs in DLD using an in-house integral equation solver. We systematically investigate the effects of the interior fluid viscosity and the membrane elasticity of an RBC on its behavior. These mechanical properties of a cell determine its deformability, which can be altered by several diseases. We particularly consider deep devices in which an RBC can show rich dynamics such as tank-treading and tumbling. It turns out that strong hydrodynamic lift force moves the tank-treading cells along the pillars and weak or negative lift force leads the tumbling ones to move with the flow. Thereby, deformability-based separation of RBCs is possible. We also assess the efficiency of the technique for dense suspensions.

Mathematics; Fluid mechanics; Mechanics of particles and systems; Fluid dynamics

video/mp4

Author affiliation: University of Texas

2018-04-13

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/65335

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/