A microfluidic platform to study the effects of vascular architecture and oxygen gradients on sickle blood flow.

ABSTRACT: Our goal was to develop a model of the microvasculature that would allow us to quantify changes in the rheology of sickle blood as it traverses the varying vessel sizes and oxygen tensions in the microcirculation. We designed and implemented a microfluidic model of the microcirculation that comprises a branching microvascular network and physiologic oxygen gradients. We used computational modeling to determine the parameters necessary to generate stable, linear gradients in our devices. Sickle blood from six unique patients was perfused through the microvascular network and subjected to varying oxygen gradients while we observed and quantified blood flow. We found that all sickle blood samples fully occluded the microvascular network when deoxygenated, and we observed that sickle blood cou

SUBMITTER: Lu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5505799 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature