Paper Number
PO119 

Session
Poster Session

Title
An interspecies comparison of blood rheology

Presentation Date and Time
October 17, 2018 (Wednesday) 6:30

Track / Room
Poster Session / Woodway II/III

Authors (Click on name to view author profile)

  1. Horner, Jeffrey S. (University of Delaware, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
  2. Beris, Antony N. (University of Delaware, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
  3. Wagner, Norman J. (University of Delaware)
  4. Woulfe, Donna S. (University of Delaware, Biological Sciences)

Author and Affiliation Lines (in printed abstract book)
Jeffrey S. Horner1, Antony N. Beris1, Norman J. Wagner1, and Donna S. Woulfe2
1Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE; 2Biological Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

Speaker / Presenter 
Horner, Jeffrey S.

Text of Abstract
Despite almost always containing the same constituents, blood from different species may exhibit significantly different rheological profiles. These differences are primarily attributed to changes in the red blood cell interactions across species. Most notably, red blood cells from some species such as human, pig, and horse may reversibly aggregate at low shear rates to form coin stack structures called rouleaux. However, this phenomenon is absent in blood from other species such as sheep, cow, and chicken. When rouleaux are present, the viscosity of the blood will significantly increase at low shear rates and the blood may exhibit a nonzero yield stress. Moreover, due to the reversible nature of this aggregation process, blood samples in which rouleaux are present will exhibit thixotropy. In this work, we present new steady and transient rheological data on blood from various species. Using the acquired data, we fit a modified version of a recently published blood thixotropy model to demonstrate the universality of the model and quantify the differences between the various species sampled [1]. This study raises some interesting and clinically relevant questions pertaining to the causes of rouleaux formation from both an evolutionary and biological viewpoint. Understanding this phenomenon is important as a number of diseases have been linked to enhanced rouleaux formation. Moreover, by understanding the changes in blood rheology across species we can improve the scale up process for intravenous drugs as a number of drugs are first tested on animals. [1] Horner et al., J. Rheol., 62(2), (2018).