5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING , İstanbul, Türkiye, 17 - 19 Aralık 2019, ss.1204
ABSTRACT
Platelets are component of blood and they are responsible for stopping the bleeding. Platelets play an
important role in health problems such as thrombosis, cancer, inflammation etc. They are small cells that are derived
from bigger cells called megakaryocytes. Platelets cannot be stored because of their 5-day shelf life and also a possible
bacterial contamination. In daily life in case of need, platelets are provided by living donors. More than 2.17 million
apheresis equivalent platelet units are transfused yearly in the US at a cost of >$1 billion per year. In recent years,
various groups have either succeeded in producing megakaryocytes that produce platelets. Thanks to microfluidics,
platelets can be produced instantaneously from megakaryocytes that isolated and stored before. But these studies have
suffered from same limitations; first one is low yield of process and second one is artificial platelets cannot be replaced
with physiological platelet products. To cope with these limitations, flow behaviors in microchannels should be
observed correctly and operation conditions optimized maximized for the yield of process.
In microfluidic devices, liquid flowing in a microchannel behaves as in a laminar flow regime. Due to the
laminar flow in the channels, the flow rate can be precisely controlled so that the well-defined shear stress can be
applied for breaking megakaryocytes into platelets. In this study, we summarized the general limitations and operation
conditions of platelet production in a microchannel. In accordance with the data in the literature, we offer optimum
operation conditions and solutions for general problems in microchannels for platelet formation from megakaryocytes.
Keywords: Microfluidics, Biotechnology, Platelet, Megakaryocyte
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This work was supported by Research Fund of the Yildiz Technical University.
Project number FCD-2018-3150.