Abstract
In a human body, erythrocytes deform highly and can smoothly pass capillaries of which diameters are narrower than the 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 at the microcirculation level. In this research, we produced a micro channel array with a 5pm×5pm square cross section of 100pm in length on the silicon substraight to simulate capillaries. After whole blood was centrifuged and erythrocytes were separated from plasma, the erythrocytes were diluted with autologous plasma by a hematocrit of 10%. This suspension was made to flow through the micro channels. Erythrocyte was observed using a high-speed video camera each day during preservation period. As a result, the time fluctuations of compressive strain of the RBCs agree with the theoretical curve of first-order lag element as a viscoelastic Kelvin model.
