A microchannel for in vitro imaging of erythrocyte shape transformations by video microscopic technique

Both easily available materials and manual positioning techniques were used for the development of an in-house fabricated microfluidic channel. It can be seen that manual methods provides an easy, inexpensive, and readily implementable alternative to automated ones although being less accurate and involves more laborious. On the advantage side, the method is economical in that it enables the testing of newer models and hypothesis, the development of new designs, and the trail of stage/ prototype experimentation. When it comes to the erythrocyte deformability, the microchannel enables multishape erythorocyte deformability analysis as opposed to the unishape approach. Then, this microchannel even allows free orientation of cells and larger variation of shear condition across the channel cross section. Finally, it can be concluded that a larger cross section with a medium to high flow of 10-20 mm/s maybe suitable for multishape characterization of erythrocytes in dilute suspensions.