Alterations in Red Blood Cell Deformability during Storage: A Microfluidic Approach
Figure 4
Deformation and relaxation of RBCs stored for different periods of time. (a) Deformation index of RBCs within the deformation channels (spot 5 in Figure 1) and relaxation regions (spots 6, 7, and 8 in Figure 1). For reasons of legibility the standard deviation, which varied between 15 and 20%, is not shown. There was no significant change in DI with storage time (). (b) Relaxation of RBCs stored under blood bank conditions for different periods of time. The relaxation capacity of RBCs is expressed as the ΔDI, that is, the difference in DI in the deformation channel (spot 5 in Figure 1) and in the relaxation region (spot 6 in Figure 1). All data are the mean of five different blood bags.
