Rheology of blood cells as soft tissues.

Erythrocytes are unusual in that the cell membrane plays a large and direct role in observed rheological properties. The cell membrane is not a three dimensional material or tissue in the usual sense but being only two molecules thick. It behaves like a liquid sheet of constant thickness and surface area with some elastic properties due in part to protein networks of spectrin and actin on the interior face of the cell membrane. Packed red cells form a viscoelastic fluid which can be sheared, but exhibits a considerable elastic response. The elastic component decreases as the hematocrit is reduced, but is present at all hematocrits. Leukocytes also exhibit viscoelasticity but the properties are primarily dependent on the cell cytoplasm. The cell membrane plays a role only when it is stretched taut. The normal white cell properties have been explored over a wide range of osmolarities, becoming much less viscous and less elastic as the fluid content of the cell increases. White cells also may show spontaneous deformation during which the rheological properties become much stiffer than in the normal passive state.