PE-PEG/LEH can reduce its interactions with plasma expanders indexed through viscosity measurements

To investigate whether PE-PEG coated LEH (PE-PEG/LEH) can reduce its interaction with different plasma expanders and possibly suspended in those expanders, we measured the viscosity of PE-PEG/LEH suspended in different plasma expanders as an index for the interactions. The results showed that lower viscosity values for PE-PEG/LEH were observed compared with LEH especially in low shear rate regions (e.g., 7.72 +/- 1.46 cp vs. 14.91 +/- 1.03 cp for gamma = 2.25 sec-1, respectively). Moreover, the viscosity values for PE-PEG/LEH suspended in fibrinogen suspensions were much less than those of LEH in the same media at low shear rate regions (e.g., 7.72 +/- 1.59 cp vs. 25.78 +/- 1.59 cp, gamma = 2.25 sec-1, respectively). Similar results were observed for PE-PEG/LEH suspended in 1.83% of oxypolygelatin (Gel) suspensions and 1.5% hydrooxyethyl starch (HES) compared to LEH in the same suspension media. On contrast, PE-PEG/LEH suspended in dextran (Dex) showed that dramatically increasing the viscosity values in low shear rates compared with LEH suspended in the same media (e.g., 78.87 +/- 0.56 cp vs. 51.08 +/- 3.52 cp, gamma = 2.25 sec-1, respectively) were observed. Since only minor interactions with Gel, HES or fibrinogen suspensions were observed, we suggest that PE-PEG/LEH suspended in those media but not in Dex can possibly serve for resuscitation oxygen-carrying fluids.