Characterization of red blood cell deformability change during blood storage

Stored red blood cells (RBCs) show progressive deformability change during blood banking/storage. Their deformability change over an 8 weeks´ storage period was measured in this work using a microfluidic device and high-speed imaging. Multiple parameters including deformation index (DI), time constant (shape recovery rate), and RBC circularity were quantified. Compared to previous RBC deformability studies reported in the literature, our results include a significantly higher number of cells (>1,000 cells/sample vs. a few to tens of cells/sample) and, for the first time, reveal deformation changes of stored RBCs when they travel through human-capillary-like microchannels. The correlation between deformability and morphology of stored RBCs is also presented.