Premium
Dielectrophoretic detection of electrical property changes of stored human red blood cells
Author(s) -
Lavi Edwin D.,
Crivellari Francesca,
Gag Zachary
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.202100241
Subject(s) - glutaraldehyde , dielectrophoresis , human blood , materials science , coulter counter , electrode , biomedical engineering , chemistry , chromatography , nanotechnology , microfluidics , physiology , medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
The ability to transport and store a large human blood inventory for transfusions is an essential requirement for medical institutions. Thus, there is an important need for rapid and low‐cost characterization tools for analyzing the properties of human red blood cells (RBCs) while in storage. In this study, we investigate the ability to use dielectrophoresis (DEP) for measuring the storage‐induced changes in RBC electrical properties. Fresh human blood was collected, suspended in K2‐EDTA anticoagulant, and stored in a blood bank refrigerator for a period of 20 days. Cells were removed from storage at 5‐day intervals and subjected to a glutaraldehyde crosslinking reaction to “freeze” cells at their ionic equilibrium at that point in time and prevent ion leakage during DEP analysis. The DEP behavior of RBCs was analyzed in a high permittivity DEP buffer using a three‐dimensional DEP chip (3DEP) and also compared to measurements taken with a 2D quadrupole electrode array. The DEP analysis confirms that RBC electrical property changes occur during storage and are only discernable with the use of the cell crosslinking reaction above a glutaraldehyde fixation concentration of 1.0 w/v%. In particular, cytoplasm conductivity was observed to decrease by more than 75% while the RBC membrane conductance was observed to increase by more than 1000% over a period of 20 days. These results show that the presented combination of chemical crosslinking and DEP can be used as rapid characterization tool for monitoring electrical properties changes of human RBCs while subjected to refrigeration in blood bank storage.