Quantitative biomechanics of healthy and diseased human red blood cells using dielectrophoresis in a microfluidic system

• A dielectrophoresis microfluidic method is established for quantitatively characterizing the mechanical properties of a large number of biological cells.
• Experiments clearly distinguish uninfected and healthy red blood cells from those infected by Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites.
• The characterized deformability for uninfected and healthy red blood cells compare well with those derived from independent single-cell biomechanical tests that entail much greater cost, set-up time and complexity and much more limited scope and portability.

We present an experimental method to quantitatively characterize the mechanical properties of a large number of biological cells by introducing controlled deformation through dielectrophoresis in a microfluidic device. We demonstrate the capability of this technique by determining the force versus deformation characteristics of healthy human red blood cells (RBCs) and RBCs infected in vitro with Plasmodiumfalciparum malaria parasites. These experiments clearly distinguish uninfected and healthy RBCs from infected ones, and the mechanical signatures extracted from these tests are in agreement with data from other independent methods. The method developed here thus provides a potentially helpful tool to characterize quickly and effectively the isolated biomechanical response of cells in a large population, for probing the pathological states of cells, disease diagnostics, and drug efficacy assays.

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