Abstract
White blood cells (WBCs) provide crucial information pertaining to human health, and its separation from other blood constituents is imperative for blood-based diagnostics of various pathological conditions. However, efficient WBC separation and enrichment remain to be a challenge. We propose a novel mechanism of WBC separation in a microfluidic device using centrifugal forces, inertial forces, and diluted human blood prepared with hypertonic saline solution. Herein, a simple wavy type microchannel called the separation channel was designed to separate and enrich WBCs. Almost 88% of WBCs were separated with a purity of 83% with diluted blood, i.e., hematocrit (Hct) 2.8% prepared using a 10% hypertonic solution. In addition, the effect of hematocrit and flow rate on WBC separation is also reported in this work. The proposed microdevice can be used for enrichment and separation of WBCs and also develop a better understanding of the interactions amongst blood cells with altered properties.
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Abbreviations
- ρ :
-
Density of fluid (kg/m3)
- μ :
-
Dynamic viscosity of fluid (Pa.s)
- d p :
-
Particle/cell diameter (m)
- d h :
-
Hydraulic diameter (m)
- De:
-
Dean Number
- Ref :
-
Flow Reynolds number
- Rech :
-
Channel Reynolds number
- Rep :
-
Particle Reynolds number
- δ :
-
Curvature ratio
- F D :
-
Dean drag force (N)
- F L :
-
Net lift force (N)
- F C :
-
Centrifugal force (N)
- R f :
-
Ratio of lift to drag force
- λ :
-
Confinement ratio
- \({\eta }_{\mathrm{sep}}\) :
-
Separation efficiency
- Ø :
-
Purity/RBC rejection ratio
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Mr. Hemeshwar, CNC operator cum technician from BITS-Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa campus, for assisting us in fabrication of the master mold using the micro-milling process. S.T. acknowledges the financial support received under the Additional competitive grant provided by BITS-Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa campus.
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Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Additional competitive grant (GOA/ACG/2019-20/Oct/01).
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SM, VH, and ST designed the research; SM conducted the experiments; SM and ST analyzed and interpreted the data; SM, and ST wrote the manuscript. All the authors reviewed and edited the final manuscript.
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All the experiments were carried out in accordance with the rules and regulations permitted by the Human ethical committee, Bits-Pilani, KK Birla Goa campus. Blood samples in this study were obtained with written informed consent from all subjects. All blood samples were pretested for any communicable diseases.
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13206_2022_74_MOESM1_ESM.docx
Supplementary file1 Includes performance parameters, cell counting and videos. Separation of WBCs using 10% NaCl and 2.8% Hct at a flow rate of 130 µl/min (movie/video 1) and Separation of WBCs using 0.9% NaCl and 2.8% Hct at a flow rate of 130 µl/min (movie/video 2) (DOCX 65 KB)
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Supplementary file3 (AVI 5212 KB)
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Mane, S., Hemadri, V. & Tripathi, S. Separation of White Blood Cells in a Wavy Type Microfluidic Device Using Blood Diluted in a Hypertonic Saline Solution. BioChip J 16, 291–304 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13206-022-00074-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13206-022-00074-z