Relationship between deformability of red blood cells and oxygen transfer: A modelized investigation

The relation between deformability of RBCs and oxygen transfer is investigated by comparing RBCs from normal and Fallot donors. In the present modelization of the biological system, the flow is generated by a platinum disc electrode rotated, under laminar conditions, in a RBC suspension, and the oxygen transfer to the wall is measured by the rate of the electrochemical reduction of oxygen to water. Deformability, measured by filterability, is shown to be lower for Fallot than for normal RBCs. The results on oxygen reduction reveal that an increase in the deformability of the RBC gives rise to an increase of oxygen transfer which corresponds mainly to an increase of the diffusion coefficient of oxygen in the suspending medium.