Development of an integrated fingerstick blood self-collection device for radiation countermeasures

We report the development of system for packaging critical components of the traditional collection kit to make an integrated fingerstick blood collector for self-collecting blood samples of 100 μl or more for radiation countermeasures. A miniaturized vacuum tube system (VacuStor system) has been developed to facilitate liquid reagent storage, simple operation and reduced sample contamination. Vacuum shelf life of the VacuStor tube has been analyzed by the ideal gas law and gas permeation theory, and multiple ways to extend vacuum shelf life beyond one year have been demonstrated, including low temperature storage, Parylene barrier coating and container vacuum bag sealing. Self-collection was also demonstrated by healthy donors without any previous fingerstick collection experience. The collected blood samples showed similar behavior in terms of gene expression and cytogenetic biodosimetry assays comparing to the traditionally collected samples. The integrated collector may alleviate the sample collection bottleneck for radiation countermeasures following a large-scale nuclear event, and may be useful in other applications with its self-collection and liquid reagent sample preprocessing capabilities.

本研究报道了一种集成化指尖采血采集器的研制工作，该系统通过集成封装传统采血套件的关键组件，可用于辐射应急场景下自主采集100微升及以上血样。研究开发了小型化真空管系统（VacuStor系统），可实现液态试剂存储、简化操作流程并降低样本污染风险。结合理想气体定律与气体渗透理论，对VacuStor管的真空保质期开展了分析，并验证了多种可将真空保质期延长至1年以上的方案，包括低温存储、聚对二甲苯（Parylene）阻隔涂层及容器真空袋密封工艺。无任何指尖采血经验的健康志愿者即可完成自主采血操作。与传统方式采集的血样相比，本次采集的血样在基因表达与细胞遗传生物剂量检测实验中表现出一致的检测特性。该集成化采血采集器可缓解大规模核事件后辐射应急场景下的样本采集瓶颈，同时凭借自主采血与液态试剂样本预处理功能，可拓展应用于其他相关场景。