Abstract
The main studies in Clinical Haemorheology have been performed on the red cell. However, rheologists and clinicians recently began to analyze the leukocyte behaviour in microcirculation.
Our study carried out the evaluation of the leukocyte deformation and the effects of an hemorheological drug (pentoxifylline) by a simple filtration method. Two subpopulations were taken into account : mononuclears and granulocytes. Different physical factors (pressure, number of cells, pore diameter) were assessed in order to find out the optimum conditions for studying the leukocyte filterability. The granulocyte population seems to be more rigid (Igranu = 3.33 ± 0.85 N = 10) as compared to the monocyte population (Imono = 3.01 ± 0.74 N = 9) for 3 000 G/L.
The incubation of these fractions with pentoxifylline (7.10−4M) for one or two hours at 37° C showed that pentoxifylline does improve the leukocyte filterability significantly for an average of 17 %.
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