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Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Controlled Microfluidic Environment for Dynamic Investigation of Red Blood Cell Aggregation
Published on: June 4, 2015
Blood viscosity: influence of erythrocyte aggregation
Abstract:
The addition of purified canine or bovine fibrinogen to suspensions of canine erythocytes in Ringer solution caused an increase in viscosity and the formation of aggregates of erythocytes. Both of these effects became increasingly pronounced as the fibrinogen concentration was raised, and they approached plateaus with 1 gram of fibrinogen per 100 milliliters. An increase in shear rate (or shear stress) reduced both the effect on viscosity and the aggregate size. The data suggest that fibrinogen causes an increase in blood viscosity and a departure from Newtonian behavior by interacting with erythrocytes to form cell aggregates which can be dispersed by shear stress.
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