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Microfluidic Techniques for Platelet Separation and Enrichment

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Abstract

One of the major areas of active research in microfluidics is in biological applications. These applications often require complex analysis of biological fluids for clinical diagnostics. One such complex multicomponent suspension is blood, a mixture of cells suspended in plasma. The cellular components constitute RBCs, WBCs, and platelets. Platelets play a fundamental role in blood clotting mechanism and their efficient functioning is of utmost importance. Platelet separation is necessary for disease diagnostics, transfusion, and research purposes. Centrifugation is commonly employed for platelet separation. However, researchers are developing techniques to enable platelet separation using microfluidics as a tool, primarily due to the various advantages offered while working at microscale. In this review, we investigate and highlight various microscale platelet separation techniques currently available, focusing on their design, working principle, and performance aspects. The issues, challenges, and further possibilities of research and development are also underscored. Our review indicates that not many microdevices for platelet separation are currently available, pointing to an important void that needs to be urgently filled. A brief discussion on the conventional method of platelet separation and platelet dynamics is also included.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the IMPRINT scheme of MHRD (Ministry of Human resource Development), Government of India.

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  1. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400076, India

    Vijai Laxmi, Siddhartha Tripathi, Suhas S. Joshi & Amit Agrawal

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  1. Vijai Laxmi
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Correspondence to Amit Agrawal.

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Laxmi, V., Tripathi, S., Joshi, S.S. et al. Microfluidic Techniques for Platelet Separation and Enrichment. J Indian Inst Sci 98, 185–200 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41745-018-0072-6

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