Impact of sequential bifurcations on the cell-free layer of healthy and rigid red blood cells

IF 5.4 2区 工程技术 Q1 BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS
Lab on a Chip Pub Date : 2025-08-18 DOI:10.1039/D4LC00865K
Yazdan Rashidi, Christian Wagner and Steffen M. Recktenwald
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Abstract

In the microcirculation, red blood cells (RBCs) tend to move away from vessel walls, creating a central flow of cells and a peripheral cell-free layer (CFL). The CFL significantly affects blood flow and is important for lab-on-a-chip applications, such as cell–plasma separation. This study investigates how the length of the feeding branch before bifurcations affects RBC distribution and CFL formation, especially in sequential T-bifurcations. We conducted experiments to study RBC flow in microfluidic bifurcating channels of different lengths (2.5–7.5 mm) at a fixed hematocrit of 5% using both healthy and artificially rigidified RBCs. Our findings show that a minimum branch length is required before a bifurcation to achieve a steady state in the CFL. If the channel length before a second bifurcation is shorter than this minimum, reaching an equilibrium CFL in sequential bifurcations is impossible. We observe that short channels after the first bifurcation lead to increased CFL asymmetry in the daughter branches after the second bifurcation, while longer channels better maintain symmetry. Additionally, we explored the impact of RBC rigidity on CFL development. Rigid and healthy RBCs showed similar behavior at the first bifurcation, but their CFL development patterns differed significantly by the second bifurcation, affecting RBC partitioning. These results emphasize the importance of considering branch length in the study and design of bifurcations for lab-on-a-chip devices and provide insights into how impaired RBC deformability can affect blood flow.

Abstract Image

顺序分岔对健康和刚性红细胞无细胞层的影响。
在微循环中,红细胞倾向于远离血管壁,形成中心细胞流和外周无细胞层(CFL)。CFL对血流有显著影响,对芯片实验室应用(如细胞血浆分离)非常重要。本研究探讨了进食分支分叉前的长度如何影响红细胞分布和CFL形成,特别是在顺序t分叉中。我们利用健康红细胞和人工硬化红细胞,在固定红细胞比容为5%的条件下,研究了不同长度(2.5-7.5 mm)的微流体分叉通道中的红细胞流动情况。我们的研究结果表明,在CFL中,为了达到稳定状态,在分叉之前需要最小的分支长度。如果在第二次分岔之前的通道长度小于这个最小值,则在顺序分岔中达到平衡CFL是不可能的。我们观察到,第一次分叉后的短通道导致第二次分叉后子分支的CFL不对称性增加,而较长的通道更好地保持对称性。此外,我们探讨了红细胞硬度对CFL发展的影响。刚性红细胞和健康红细胞在第一次分叉时表现出相似的行为,但在第二次分叉时,它们的CFL发育模式明显不同,影响了红细胞的分裂。这些结果强调了在研究和设计芯片实验室设备分支时考虑分支长度的重要性,并为RBC变形性受损如何影响血流提供了见解。
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来源期刊
Lab on a Chip
Lab on a Chip 工程技术-化学综合
CiteScore
11.10
自引率
8.20%
发文量
434
审稿时长
2.6 months
期刊介绍: Lab on a Chip is the premiere journal that publishes cutting-edge research in the field of miniaturization. By their very nature, microfluidic/nanofluidic/miniaturized systems are at the intersection of disciplines, spanning fundamental research to high-end application, which is reflected by the broad readership of the journal. Lab on a Chip publishes two types of papers on original research: full-length research papers and communications. Papers should demonstrate innovations, which can come from technical advancements or applications addressing pressing needs in globally important areas. The journal also publishes Comments, Reviews, and Perspectives.
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