CBS

Canadian Blood Services manufactures and manages the blood supply for all Canadians. Created by Canada in 1998, it operates at arms length from the government of Canada... Among the most crucial rheological characteristics of blood cells within the vasculature is their ability to undergo the shape change (i.e., deform). The significance of cellular deformability is readily apparent based solely on the disparate mean size of human erythrocytes ( 8 µm) and leukocytes (10-25 µm) compared to the minimum luminal size of capillaries (4-5 µm) and splenic interendothelial clefts (0.5-1.0 µm) they must transit. Over the past several years our laboratory has investigated the deformability of normal and abnormal blood cell using a variety of techniques (ektacytometry, micropore cell transit times and microfluidics). Most recently, we have been investigating how a new generation of small, inexpensive, microfluidic devices can be used to examine the vascular deformability of erythrocytes and..

Also known as: Canadian Blood Services