Fig. 5: End-organ safety in microfluidic leukapheresis.

Clinical laboratory data and representative histology comparing before (Pre) and after (Post) microfluidic leukapheresis procedures to assess for (a–c) cardiopulmonary, (d–f) renal, and (g–i) liver injury, markers of hemolysis (j–l), and (m–o) markers of coagulation system activation in CIF () and sham (✕) groups. There were no differences between CIF- and sham-treated animals before and after the experiments. However, in both groups, there was a rise in blood urea nitrogen (p = 0.001 and p < 0.0001 for CIF and sham groups, respectively) and creatinine (p = 0.0167 and p = 0.0214 for CIF and sham groups, respectively) and a small, but clinically insignificant, rise in potassium (p = 0.0002 and p = 0.0003 for CIF and sham groups, respectively). In the sham group only, there was a rise in lactate dehydrogenase (LDH; p = 0.1539 and p = 0.0026 for CIF and sham groups, respectively) and a small decrease in lactate (p = 0.465 and p = 0.0305 for CIF and sham groups, respectively). H&E sections appeared similar between the groups. In both groups, there was rise in von Willebrand factor (VWF; p = 0.0015 and p = 0.0018 for CIF and sham groups, respectively) and thrombin-antithrombin (TAT; p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0001 for CIF and sham groups, respectively) complexes, but no differences between the CIF and sham groups. Data shown as mean ± s.e.m. n = 7 for CIF and n = 8 for sham groups. Data analyzed using 2-way RM ANOVA with Sidak’s multiple comparison test. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. Scale bar = 50 µm.