Monitoring Biological Cell Flow within a Mimicking Capillary Device with Impedance Measurement

Abstract

This paper presents a microfluidic system, characterizing the red blood cell (RBC) deformability through its transit time in a microchannel, which dimensions reproducing blood microcirculation capillary. Electrodes are integrated within the microchannel for electrical measurements. The transit time is measured with the electrical blockade produced when the RBC squeezes in the microchannel (d = 5 μm diameter, while the cell diameter is 8 μm). In order to determine most suitable electrical frequency range for the voltage applied to excitation electrodes, FEM numerical simulation of the bioimpedance is achieved and presented in this paper. We investigated the frequency response of the bioimpedance taking into account the electrode polarization, the dielectric properties of the medium, a single shell model for RBC and finally the RBC position within the microchannel.

Keywords

• microfluidic
• bioimpedance
• sickle cell disease
• mimetic chip