Adhesion of red cells to foreign surfaces in the presence of flow

Abstract

Abstract A controlled surface shear stress produced by laminar flow in a rotating disk or parallel plate flow system has been used to study red cell adhesion to glass, siliconized glass, polythylene and Teflon. The results indicate that the shear stress at the surface must exceed a minimum critical value before cells will detach, and that this minimum critical shear stress increases as the time of cellsurface contact is increased. The results also indicate that the minimum critical shear stress for detachment from clean surfaces correlates with the critical surface tension of the material for the four materials studied. Studies with proteincoated surfaces indicate that albumin causes a moderate reduction in the strength of adhesion. The magnitude of the effect was found to be influenced significantly by the substratum material.