Abstract
It is well known that red blood cells (RBCs) are suffered from chronic stresses in systemic circulation. The objective of this study is to clarify the effect of the aging of RBCs on the ability of aggregation, fragility and deformability. Initially, RBCs age fractionation was performed by using a high-speed centrifugation, then young and aged RBCs were suspended in plasma to adjust the hematocrit value of 40 [%]. After this pretreatment, the viscosity was measured by a cone-plate type viscometer, and the hemolysis test was carried out by a seesaw type shaker. Results from these experiments showed that the viscosity was increased under the condition of all shear zones, and the hemolytic value was increased twice as the aging. The data obtained in this study indicated that the ability of aggregation of RBCs was increased and the deformability of RBCs' membrane got lower with the aging. Furthermore, it was exhibited that the fragility of RBCs' membrane was increased with the aging.
