Using microfluidic devices to study thrombosis in pathological blood flows

Extreme flows can exist within pathological vessel geometries or mechanical assist devices which create complex forces and lead to thrombogenic problems associated with disease. Turbulence and boundary layer separation are difficult to obtain in microfluidics due to the low Reynolds number flow in small channels. However, elongational flows, extreme shear rates and stresses, and stagnation point flows are possible using microfluidics and small perfusion volumes. In this review, a series of microfluidic devices used to study pathological blood flows are described. In an extreme stenosis channel pre-coated with fibrillar collagen that rapidly narrows from 500 μm to 15 μm, the plasma von Willebrand Factor (VWF) will elongate and assemble into thick fiber bundles on the collagen. Using a micropost-impingement device, plasma flow impinging on the micropost generates strong elongational and wall shear stresses that trigger the growth of a VWF bundle around the post (no collagen required). Using a stagnation-point device to mimic the zone near flow reattachment, blood can be directly impinged upon a procoagulant surface of collagen and the tissue factor. Clots formed at the stagnation point of flow impingement have a classic core-shell architecture where the core is highly activated (P-selectin positive platelets and fibrin rich). Finally, within occlusive clots that fill a microchannel, the Darcy flow driven by ΔP/L > 70 mm-Hg/mm-clot is sufficient to drive NETosis of entrapped neutrophils, an event not requiring either thrombin or fibrin. Novel microfluidic devices are powerful tools to access physical environments that exist in human disease.