Blood flow structuring and its alterations in capillaries of the cerebral cortex

Various manifestations of blood flow structuring were investigated in rabbit cerebral cortex capillaries, which possess the most narrow lumina of all parts of the body. Blood flow structuring in the capillaries was characterized by the presence of a stable and comparatively large parietal plasma layer, which changed insignificantly under control and ischemic conditions, but disappeared when blood stasis developed inside the capillaries. The axial core of the blood flow in the capillaries, which occupied almost two-thirds of the intracapillary volume under normal conditions, consisted of significantly deformed (stretched along the microvessels' axes) and nonaggregated erythrocytes. During ischemia the shape of the erythrocytes did not change appreciably; only the blood plasma intervals between them increased significantly, demonstrating reduction of the local hematocrit. During primary blood stasis caused by enhanced intravascular erythrocyte aggregation, typical blood flow structuring became significantly disturbed: red cells filled the whole, or almost the whole, capillary lumina and did not leave visible space for plasma inside the microvessel lumina. We concluded that normal blood flow structuring is a deciding factor in the blood rheological properties of microvessels. Its disturbance, caused by fast accumulation of erythrocytes in the capillary lumina, results in blood rheological disorders and in a slow down to a full stop of the blood flow, despite a preserved arteriolovenular pressure difference.