Developments in red cell rheology at the Institut de Pathologie Cellulaire

The present day rheological approximation, which has been used successfully to quantitate the deformability properties of red cells, is based on the view that the cell has a liquid interior encapsulated by a viscoelastic solid membrane shell. A review of historical developments in this field shows that determination of intrinsic red cell membrane properties has not come from simple mathematical analysis of experiments. On the contrary, considerable insight has been required to bring together physical and biological methods to rationalize the unique deformability characteristics of the red blood cell. Key developments at the Institut de Pathologie Cellulaire (IPC) in the early 1970s played a role in our improved understanding of red cell rheology. In this article, we describe the material concepts of the red cell membrane held before 1970, discuss the seminal developments at Bicetre, and, finally, outline the contemporary view of red cell deformability.