Centrifugal Packing of Suspensions of Erythrocytes Hardened with Acetaldehyde

Summary and ConclusionsThe centrifugally packed column of human or canine RBC hardened with acetaldehyde consists of only 60% cells, in contrast to the near 100% packing for normal RBC. This incomplete packing of hardened RBC was demonstrated with the isotope dilution method using three different macromolecules (albumin, dextran, and PVP) and by following the hematocrit values during the hardening process, and the results agree with theoretical calculations. The striking difference in the centrifugal packing of hardened vs normal RBC indicates that normal RBC are deformable during centrifugal packing and that the low degree of packing must be considered in any study on hardened RBC.