Affiliations: Institute of Medical Physics and Biophysics, University Hospital Charité, Medical Faculty of Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany | Emory University School of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Atlanta, USA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Dr. Manfred Pohl, Institute of Medical Physics and Biophysics, University Hospital Charité, Humboldt‐University Berlin, Invalidenstraße 42, 10115 Berlin, Germany. Tel.: +49 30 20938305; Fax: +49 30 20938303; E‐mail: manfred.pohl@charite.de.
Abstract: Human or animal blood is normally used as a test fluid for the in vitro evaluation of hemolysis by artificial organs. However, blood has some disadvantages (large biological variability and problems with cleaning the devices). For that reason, we searched for a reproducible technical fluid with blood‐like flow characteristics that exhibits similar shear depending destruction. In this study, a direct comparison between erythrocyte damage of bovine blood and shear‐induced degradation of polyacrylamide solution is given. A uniform shear field was applied to the fluids using a shear device with a plate‐plate geometry. It was shown that similarities exist between erythrocytes disaggregation and breakdown of super molecular structures in polymer solutions, caused by mechanical stress. In both cases steady low shear viscositity was diminished and the elastic component of complex viscosity of blood and polymer solutions has been reduced. There is a correlation between shear‐induced hemolysis of bovine blood and mechanical polymer‐degradation, which depends on the applied shear stresses.
Journal: Biorheology, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 313-324, 2000
