https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6976-1712
Key Points
Irreversibly sickled cells are twenty times stiffer than non-sickled cells and six times less stiff than reversibly sickled cells.
Irreversibly sickled cell fractions have a negative correlation patient fetal hemoglobin fraction.
Abstract
We developed a platform to measure the oxygen dependent mechanical properties and oxygen saturation of individual irreversibly sickled cells (ISC). We identified and measured ISCs from a cohort of 10 individuals with SCD. ISCs were found to have an average shear surface modulus twenty times that of non-sickled cells and a sixth that of red blood cells with detectable hemoglobin polymer. We found that the number of ISCs was significantly reduced at 53 mmHg oxygen compared to 91 mmHg oxygen and above, suggesting these RBCs can still form polymer under hypoxia. We also found that the fraction of ISCs present in a blood sample had a negative correlation with donor fetal hemoglobin fraction, suggesting HbF could play a role in mitigating occurrence of irreversibly sickled cells.
Author notes
Data sharing statement: All code, convolutional neural net model, and training data can be found at the github doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14080807. Raw data files are too large to store on github. For raw data files please contact will6605@umn.edu.
