Figure 4. Assessment of microvascular occlusion mediated by pathologically abnormal RBCs from subjects with SCD in the OcclusionChip.

(A) Representative fluorescent image of retained HbSS RBCs across the microfluidic device. Typical morphologies of retained HbSS RBCs within microcapillaries are shown in subsequent insets. Scale bar represents a length of 500 μm, 50 μm, and 10 μm, respectively. Arrow indicates flow direction. (B) Profiles of numbers of microcapillary occlusions induced by normal (HbAA) RBCs and SCD (HbSS) RBCs (5 HbAA and 16 HbSS) in each arrays. (C) The Occlusion Index (OI) of HbSS RBCs is significantly higher compared to that of HbAA RBCs (p=0.001, Mann-Whitney).