Quantification of depletion-induced adhesion of Red Blood Cells

Abstract

Red blood cells (RBC) are known to form aggregates in the forms of rouleaux due to the presence of plasma proteins under physiological conditions. Rouleaux formation can be also induced in vitro by the addition of macromolecules to the RBC solution. Current data on the adhesion strength between red blood cells in their natural discocyte shapes mostly rely on indirect measurements like flow chamber experiments, but on the single cell level data is lacking. Here we present measurements on the dextran induced aggregation of red blood cells by use of atomic force microscopy based single cell force spectroscopy (SCFS). The effects of dextran concentration and molecular weight on the interaction energy of adhering RBCs was determined. The results are in good agreement with a model based on the depletion effect and former experimental studies.

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Aggregation of Red Blood Cells: From Rouleaux to Clot Formation
• Long-lived anomalous thermal diffusion induced by elastic cell membranes on nearby particles
• Cluster of red blood cells in microcapillary flow: hydrodynamic versus macromolecule induced interaction
• Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Depletion-Induced Interactions for Soft Matter Systems
• Dissociation of red blood cell aggregates in extensional flow
• Influence of erythrocyte density on aggregability as a marker of cell age: Dissociation dynamics in extensional flow
• Deposit of Red Blood Cells at low concentrations in evaporating droplets: central edge growth and potential applications
• The plasma protein fibrinogen stabilizes clusters of red blood cells in microcapillary flows
• Anisotropic short-range attractions precisely model branched erythrocyte aggregates