Red cell deformability and adaptation in cholesterol-fed guinea pigs.

The flow of dietary cholesterol-loaded guinea-pig erythrocytes was observed in a glass capillary viscometer at wall shear stresses of 2 and 56 dynes/cm2. The viscosity of a suspension of red cells (H = 56 vol%) in a Ringer-albumin solution served as an estimate of the red cell deformation. It was found that dietary cholesterol did not significantly alter red cell deformability. The serum of cholesterol-fed animals showed higher sphering properties (possibly due to a higher concentration of lysolecithin) when incubated under the same conditions as the serum from control animals. When cholesterol-loaded red cells came into contact with the sphering agent lysolecithin, reduced flow properties were exhibited during prolonged contact, whereas erythrocytes from controls adapted to lysolecithin.