Transport of Red Blood Cell Carriers Through Microfluidic Model Mimicking Human Pulmonary Capillary

Introduction: Vascular-targeted drug carriers (VTC) for localized treatment of cardiovascular diseases, but less than 1% of injected doses reach the target site1. While larger particles may improve targeting, they have a short circulatory half-life and may occlude capillaries. Red blood cells (RBC), hold some advantages over VTCs, long circulatory time, also, therapeutic agents can be loaded inside the RBCs or attached to the surface2. Their unique shape allows deformation through capillaries, making them ideal for drug delivery. Microfluidic platforms offer new opportunities to study VTC and RBC carriers.