Rheological discrimination between native,rigid and aggregated red blood cells in oscillatory flow 1

The viscoelastic behaviour of hardened or aggregated red blood cells is compared with the flow pattern of native red blood cells, all suspended in buffer solution at a hematocrit of 45%. The rheological properties are investigated under oscillatory shear at the constant frequency of 2Hz. Variation of the amplitude covers a range of shear-rates from 0.5/s to 200/s. It can be seen that rigidification of the red cells by treatment with glutardialdehyde leads to changes of the flow properties in the range of shear-rates above 10/s, whereas aggregate formation due to addition of dextran distinctly alters the flow properties in the range of shear-rates below 10/s.