title: Role of erythrocyte deformability during capillary wetting.
abstract: Deformability of erythrocyte was found to fundamentally alter the wetting dynamics of red blood cell (RBC) suspensions during their invasion into capillaries. Normal RBC suspensions failed to penetrate more than 1 cm into a glass capillary when the capillary radius was smaller than a critical value that is dependent on the erythrocyte concentration (about 50 microm for whole blood). In contrast, suspensions of rigidified RBCs, after cross-linking with different concentrations of glutaraldehyde or incubating with 100 ng/mL of an endotoxin, could penetrate any capillary larger than the erythrocyte dimension. The effect of RBC deformability on penetration was attributed to the enhanced shear-induced migration of normal deformable RBCs toward the capillary centreline, which imparted a higher average velocity to the RBCs than the average plasma velocity. As a result, the erythrocytes advanced into the capillary faster than the wetting meniscus, packing behind it to form a concentrated slug. This tightly packed slug had a high hydrodynamic resistance that could arrest the penetrating flow of concentrated suspensions into the small capillaries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Illinois 46556, USA.
authors.forename: Ronghui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: Andre F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.forename: Hsueh-Chia
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D004731:Endotoxins / Q000494:pharmacology; D004907:Erythrocyte Deformability; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D005976:Glutaral / Q000494:pharmacology; D012212:Rheology; D017155:Wettability
chemical_list: D004731:Endotoxins; D005976:Glutaral