Competitive role between fibrinogen and albumin on thixotropy of red cell suspensions

Issue title: 25th Anniversary Volume. Perspectives in Biorheology II. Festschrift for Syoten Oka

Guest editors: Eiichi Fukada and Takehiko Azuma

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Lacombe, C. | Bucherer, C. | Ladjouzi, J. | Lelièvre, J.C.

Affiliations: Université Paris 6 et CNRS UA 343, Unité de Biorhéologie, Département de Biophysique, CHU Pitié-Salpêtrière, 91 Bd de l’Hôpital, 75013 Paris, France

Abstract: Plasmatic proteins, namely fibrinogen and globulins, play a major role in red blood cell (RBC) aggregation which is accountable for the three-dimensional structure of blood. Consequently, blood rheological properties linked to this structure must be modified when the protein plasma content changes. This paper gives results and related comments on thixotropic properties of RBC suspensions (0.45 hematocrit) in isotonic solutions containing various amount of fibrinogen to which albumin is added. Thixotropic behavior of these RBC suspensions is studied with a low inertia coaxial cylinders viscometer at a shear rate step of γ˙=1s−1 Rheograms are interpreted in term of thixotropy coefficient. The main conclusion is that albumin improves RBC disaggregability of whole blood, resulting probably from a competitive effect between fibrinogen and albumin in the RBC aggregation process.

Keywords: Blood thixotropy, Red blood cell aggregation, Fibrinogen, Albumin

DOI: 10.3233/BIR-1988-251-244

Journal: Biorheology, vol. 25, no. 1-2, pp. 349-354, 1988