Abstract
In a human body, erythrocytes deform highly and can smoothly pass capillaries which diameters are narrower than cells'. Since capillaries connect all organs in a body, decrease in erythrocytes deformability causes several diseases. Therefore it is very important to evaluate the dynamic deformability of the erythrocyte on a micro-circulation level, In this research, we produced the micro channel array with a 5μm×5μm square cross section of 100μm in length on the silicone chip to simulate capillaries, and made experiments to estimate the deformation of erythrocyte flowing channels. After whole blood was centrifuged to divide erythrocytes from the other component of blood, the erythrocytes were diluted with autologous plasma by a hematocrit of 10%. This suspension was made to flow through the micro channels and deformation of erythrocyte was observed using high-speed video camera. Erythrocyte axial length and its concave length in channels were measured at lower and higher velocities. As a result, it is found that those lengths did not change considerably through a channel.
