Measurement of RBC deformation and velocity in capillaries in vivo

• DOI: 10.1016/j.mvr.2006.02.006
• Publication Date: 2006-04-20T08:05:47Z
• Authors: Jae Hong Jeong; Yasusiko Sugii; Motomu Minamiyama; Koji Okamoto
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; Erythrocytes; Erythrocyte Deformability; Animals; Female; Splanchnic Circulation; Rats, Wistar; Blood Flow Velocity; Capillaries; Rats

Red blood cells (RBC) become deformed while flowing through capillaries. We captured images of blood flow in capillaries and of RBC in the rat mesentery using a high-speed camera at 2000 frames/s and then directly measured and estimated the deformation and velocity of RBC in a non-uniform capillary. The distribution of the capillary diameter was determined by image processing. We applied a deformation index and simple modeling to observe RBC deformation in capillaries. The average capillary diameter was approximately 6.2 microm, and the average velocity of RBC was about 1.85 mm/s. The average deformation index of RBC in the capillary was about 1.55. The present results showed that RBC in capillaries generally assume a specific shape depending on external forces such as the velocity of the blood flow and capillary diameter in vivo.