Figure 1
From: Pitting of malaria parasites in microfluidic devices mimicking spleen interendothelial slits
Microfluidic devices design for pitting studies. (A) Top: Device model 1. Single channel of 1 mm width × 8 mm length, with a filtration grid design of squared columns of 50 × 50 µm distributed along the channel, leaving a narrower space between them in each row (slits), from the inlet towards the outlet. Slits are 25, 15, 10, 8, 4, and 2 µm-wide, with a total of 100 slits progressively. Bottom: Device model 2. Single channel of 1 mm width × 8 mm length, with a filtration grid design of squared columns decreasing in size from 100 × 100 µm to 10 × 10 µm progressively, with a total of 498 slits. The space between columns in each row (slits) become narrower from the inlet towards the outlet, being the minimum slit size 2 µm-wide. (B) 3D representation of RBCs passing through 2 µm slits in the microfluidic channel. Inset shows the top view of the pitting process in which an infected RBC loses an intracellular parasite. P.f.-RBCs are depicted passing through a narrow path of 2 × 4.7 × 50 μm3. The design of the devices was made with Draftsight Software 2017 (Dassaults Systèmes) and the illustrations were created with power point.
