REVIEW ARTICLE
A Micro-fluidic System for the Evaluation of Blood Compatibility of Polymers
C. Minelli1, *, A. Kikuta2, A. Yamamoto2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 43
Last Page: 50
Publisher ID: TOBIOTJ-2-43
DOI: 10.2174/1874070700802010043
Article History:
Received Date: 09/11/2007Revision Received Date: 14/01/2008
Acceptance Date: 14/01/2008
Electronic publication date: 6/2/2008
Collection year: 2008
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
We present a new technique for the evaluation of polymer blood compatibility that makes use of a microchannel array flow analyzer and we describe and characterize the flow dynamics of this instrument. The blood compatibility of four polymers is quantitatively and qualitatively assessed and the results discussed. The blood is allowed to flow through the channels of a polymer coated micro-fluidic chip under adjustable pressure. The chip surface is investigated using optical microscopy during the blood flow and by scanning electron microscopy afterwards. Polymers known for having good blood compatibility exhibited higher flow rate values. Platelets were observed adhering, aggregating and obstructing the channels of the chips coated with polymers known for having poor blood compatibility. This technique has remarkable qualities such as a small blood volume requirement for material tests (100 μL), tuneable flow regimes and the use of human blood.