On the cause of the increase in light transparency of erythrocyte suspension in flow

Abstract

When one makes erythrocyte counts in blood, one may observe irregular dark-bright stripes like a gossamer—“schlieren-effect” [Phys., 17, 117, 1915]—in a mixer. This peculiar phenomenon led us to make experiments to confirm whether light transparency changes or not for resting and flowing erythrocyte suspensions when light is projected on them. We have found that the transmitted light is more intensive in the flowing state than in the resting state and one of us (Kuroda) has called this phenomenon “streaming transparency” [J. Jap. Biochem. Soc., 26, 403, 1954].

In order to elucidate the mechanism of the increase in light transparency of flowing erythrocyte suspensions, a special apparatus was devised and the cause of the streaming transparency is investigated.