Effect of glucose on formation of three dimensional aggregates of red blood cells

A. Szolna-Chodor, M. Bosek, B. Grzegorzewski

Abstract: The influence of increased glucose concentration in blood on its rheological properties is still important issue. The formation of three dimensional aggregates of erythrocytes after incubation of the cells in glucose media is experimentally investigated. The blood was obtained from healthy donors. Erythrocytes were removed from the blood and were incubated in glucose at concentration 0, 0.1, 1, 2 and 3g/dL for 1 hour. The incubated erythrocytes were three times washed and were suspended in solution of Dextran at 3g/dL concentration. The suspensions were placed in glass container. Images of the aggregates formed in the container were obtained every 1s. The duration of every measurement was 30 min. The Fourier based analysis of these data allowed the aggregate size and their sedimentation velocity estimation. We have found that the dependence of aggregate velocity versus radius exhibits two phases with two different scaling behaviors. At the first phase, appeared for aggregate radius greater than 45 ?m the scaling exponent describing this dependence increases with an increase of glucose concentration in incubation solution. This increase of the exponent shows the decrease of the RBC aggregability.

Keywords: aggregate structure; glucose; Red blood cells

Date published: 2015-12-10