A chip has made it possible to reconstruct, in a simplified way, the spleen and its very important role as a blood 'filter': in particular, the chip shows the problems that arise for the millions of people all over the world suffering from sickle cell anemia, a disease that produces an altered form of red blood cells that can block the spleen, endangering patients' lives.
The platform was developed by researchers led by the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who published the result obtained in the journal of the American National Academy of Sciences (PNAS): the new tool will make it possible to test the drugs and can also help doctors choose personalized therapies.
Every day, billions of red blood cells pass through the spleen, the organ responsible for filtering out old or damaged cells.
This task, however, is made more difficult when the blood cells are deformed, as in people with sickle cell anemia: in 5% of cases, very often children, the 'filters' of the spleen remain clogged, causing enlargement of the organ and serious anemia.
In these cases, a blood transfusion is needed, or even the removal of the spleen.
To understand the reason for these complications, researchers led by Yuhao Qiang have built a chip that mimics the behavior of this organ in a simplified way.
So they discovered that the problem occurs in severe mode only when blood oxygen levels are low and that by bringing them back to optimal levels, the obstruction can be removed.
"This approach could help design tests to provide a patient-specific medical assessment," comments Pierre Buffet of the Pasteur Institute and University of Paris, one of the study's authors.
“This can give doctors an idea of how the patient is doing – adds Buffet – and in which situation it is necessary to perform surgery or take other measures”.
