Rheology of dilute suspensions of red blood cells: experimental and theoretical approaches

Université de Technologie de Compiègne, UMR CNRS 6600 “Biomécanique et Génie Biomédical”, Centre de Recherches de Royallieu, 60200 Compiègne, France

Corresponding author: Agnes.Drochon@utc.fr

Received: 5 September 2002
Revised: 21 January 2003
Accepted: 24 January 2003
Published online: 10 April 2003

Abstract

Shear viscosity measurements with dilute suspensions of red blood cells are interpreted using a microrheological model that relates the bulk measurements to the physical properties of the suspended cells. It is thus possible to quantify the average deformability of a RBC population in terms of a mean value of the membrane shear elastic modulus E_s. The values obtained for normal cells are in good agreement with those given in the literature. The method allows to discriminate between normal and altered (diamide or glutaraldehyde treated) cells or pathological cells (scleroderma). The predictions of the microrheological model, based on analytic calculations, are also compared with the numerical results of Ramanujan and Pozrikidis (JFM 361, 1998) for dilute suspensions of capsules in simple shear flow.