Vesicles are spherical lipid bilayers which enclose an internal volume, there are thus used in many applications such as encapsulation or design of biomimetic systems. An original simple method called continuous Droplet Interface Crossing Encapsulation (cDICE), have been developed to produce vesicles controlled in size and content. This method allows the production of vesicles in the range 5-70 μm in diameter with a high efficiency to encapsulate solutions as diverse as micrometric colloids, proteins, cells, viscous solutions (40 mPas) or saline solutions (>300 mosm). Vesicles are then produced continuously at high frequency (∼ 150 Hz). Furthermore, sickle " vesicles " have been produced using this method. Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disease which results in vaso-occlusive crisis of the blood circulation. Microfluidic channels designed to mimic physiological conditions (flow velocity, oxygen concentration, hematocrit...) of the microcirculation were used to carry out a biomimetic study at the cellular scale of sickle cell vaso-occlusion. This study has shown that flow geometry, oxygen concentration, white blood cells and free hemoglobin S are essential in the formation of cell aggregates which could play a role in the vaso-occlusion event.
