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Updated: Oct 13, 2025

Measuring Deformability and Red Cell Heterogeneity in Blood by Ektacytometry
Published on: January 12, 2018
Dynamics of Deformation Properties of Erythrocytes in Wistar Rats during Postnatal Ontogeny
L N Katyukhin1, A V Novozhilov2
1I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia. lion@iephb.ru.
Abstract:
We performed a detailed analysis of changes in the profiles of osmotic deformability using the method of gradient ektacytometry. Changes in all determinants that form the deformation properties of red blood cells in Wistar rats in the juvenile period and before puberty were determined. The dynamics of the formation of the rheological properties of the blood after birth is characterized by a wave-like change in the studied determinants. The changes are explained by adaptive reactions to extrauterine life as a result of hematopoiesis activation and the transition of the red bone marrow to a new level of functioning with the predominant replacement of physiological reticulocytosis in newborns with mature erythrocytes. The most critical period is from 10 days to 1 month after birth. Starting from the second month, the deformation parameters of erythrocytes are stabilized.
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