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The majority of adoptive cellular therapies are produced from peripheral mononuclear cells obtained via leukapheresis and further enriched for the cells of interest (e.g., T cells). Here, we present a first-of-its-kind closed system, which effectively removes ~85% of monocytes and ~88% of platelets, while recovering ~88% of concentrated T cells in a separate output stream, as the leukapheresis sample flows through a microfluidic device at 5 mL/min. The system is driven by a common peristaltic pump, enabled by a novel pressure wave dampener, and operates in a closed bag-to-bag configuration, without requiring any specialized, dedicated equipment. When compared to standard density gradient centrifugation on paired samples, the new system demonstrated a 1.5-fold increase in T cell recovery and a 2-fold reduction in inter-sample variability for this separation outcome. The T cell-to-monocyte ratio of the leukapheresis sample was increased to 20:1, whereas with density gradient processing it decreased to 2:1. As a result of superior purity and/or gentler processing, T cells enriched by the system showed a 2.7-times higher fold expansion during subsequent culture, and an overall 3.5-times higher cumulative yield. This centrifugation-free and label-free closed system for enriching lymphocytes could significantly simplify and standardize the manufacturing of life-saving cellular therapies., Competing Interests: Sean C. Gifford and Sergey S. Shevkoplyas are inventors of U.S. Patent #9,789,235 ‘Separation and concentration of particles’ describing the ‘controlled incremental filtration’ technology, and are co‐founders of Halcyon Biomedical, Incorporated, a company that would benefit from its commercialization. Riley C. Reddington and Marc Manheim are employees of Halcyon Biomedical, Incorporated. SSS has received research funding from Halcyon Biomedical, Incorporated. Anton Mukhamedshin, Mai T. P. Dinh, Kumar Abhishek, and Mubasher Iqbal declare no competing interests., (© 2023 The Authors. Bioengineering & Translational Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Institute of Chemical Engineers.)

Biomarker development is a key clinical research need in sickle cell disease (SCD). Hemorheological parameters are excellent candidates as abnormal red blood cell (RBC) rheology plays a critical role in SCD pathophysiology. Here we describe a microfluidic device capable of evaluating RBC deformability and adhesiveness concurrently, by measuring their effect on perfusion of an artificial microvascular network (AMVN) that combines microchannels small enough to require RBC deformation, and laminin (LN) coating on channel walls to model intravascular adhesion. Each AMVN device consists of three identical capillary networks, which can be coated with LN (adhesive) or left uncoated (non-adhesive) independently. The perfusion rate for sickle RBCs in the LN-coated networks (0.18 ± 0.02 nL/s) was significantly slower than in non-adhesive networks (0.20 ± 0.02 nL/s), and both were significantly slower than the perfusion rate for normal RBCs in the LN-coated networks (0.22 ± 0.01 nL/s). Importantly, there was no overlap between the ranges of perfusion rates obtained for sickle and normal RBC samples in the LN-coated networks. Interestingly, treatment with poloxamer 188 decreased the perfusion rate for sickle RBCs in LN-coated networks in a dose-dependent manner, contrary to previous studies with conventional assays, but in agreement with the latest clinical trial which showed no clinical benefit. Overall, these findings suggest the potential utility of the adhesive AMVN device for evaluating the effect of novel curative and palliative therapies on the hemorheological status of SCD patients during clinical trials and in post-market clinical practice., Competing Interests: SS was an inventor of the artificial microvascular network technology described in this article, and has received compensation as a consultant for Hemanext (formerly New Health Sciences, Inc.) which is commercializing this technology. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Lu, Kanne, Reddington, Lezzar, Sheehan and Shevkoplyas.)