Abstract
Capillaries are microvessels of 5〜8μm in diameter, which play an important role in the exchange of gas and mass between red blood cells and tissue cells. In order to clarify the blood flow in capillaries, we fabricated a realistic model of a capillary vessel inside a silica glass using a femtosecond laser micro/nano fabrication system which had capabilities to fabricate three-dimensional microtubes and microcavities inside a transparent material. The present capillary models had a diameter of about 10μm. We succeeded in observing blood flow in this micro-model using a flow visualization technique. RBCs and tracer particles sometimes flowed smoothly in the model, but sometimes adhered to the channel wall, which indicated a blockage occurrence. This phenomenon occurred independently of particle type and particle diameter. We concluded that surface roughness on the channel wall seemed to affect these particle-adhering phenomena.
