Publication Date

6-1-2020

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Current Protocols in Cytometry

Volume

93

Issue

1

DOI

10.1002/cpcy.75

Abstract

Red blood cell biomechanics can provide us with a deeper understanding of macroscopic physiology and have the potential of being used for diagnostic purposes. In diseases like sickle cell anemia and malaria, reduced red blood cell deformability can be used as a biomarker, leading to further assays and diagnoses. A microfluidic system is useful for studying these biomechanical properties. We can observe detailed red blood cell mechanical behavior as they flow through microcapillaries using high-speed imaging and microscopy. Microfluidic devices are advantageous over traditional methods because they can serve as high-throughput tests. However, to rapidly analyze thousands of cells, there is a need for powerful image processing tools and software automation. We describe a workflow process using Image-Pro to identify and track red blood cells in a video, take measurements, and export the data for use in statistical analysis tools. The information in this protocol can be applied to large-scale blood studies where entire cell populations need to be analyzed from many cohorts of donors. © 2020 The Authors. Basic Protocol 1: Enhancing raw video for motion tracking. Basic Protocol 2: Extracting motion tracking data from enhanced video.

Funding Sponsor

Open Medicine Foundation

Keywords

automation, biomechanics, cytometry, data extraction, deformability, image processing, Image-Pro, microfluidics, motion tracking, red blood cells

Comments

This is the Version of Record and can also be read online here.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Chemical and Materials Engineering

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