Microfluidic device for continuous blood plasma separation from whole blood.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Clinical Diagnostics
• Microfluidics

Background:

• Plasma separation is crucial for clinical diagnostics but conventional methods are slow and bulky.
• Current centrifugation techniques are not suitable for point-of-care (POC) applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a simple, low-cost microfluidic device for continuous and real-time plasma separation from whole blood.
• To optimize channel geometry for minimizing red blood cell (RBC) contamination.

Main Methods:

• Numerical simulations were used to evaluate six channel geometries for optimal RBC separation.
• Microfluidic devices were fabricated using photolithography and soft lithography.
• Experimental validation was performed using whole human blood, flow cytometry, and hemolysis assays.

Main Results:

• The optimized microfluidic device achieved continuous plasma separation with significantly reduced RBC contamination compared to whole blood.
• Leukocyte content was markedly lower than in plasma from standard centrifugation.
• Plasma yield reached 3.8% with minimal hemolysis, comparable to centrifuged samples.

Conclusions:

• The developed microfluidic device offers a robust platform for high-purity plasma separation.
• This technology has strong potential for enabling point-of-care diagnostic applications.
• The device provides efficient, real-time plasma separation without external forces.