Effect on osmotic fragility of red blood cells of whole blood submitted to vibrations in an oscillating platform

Whole body vibration (WBV) exercises in oscillating platforms (OP) have emerged in sports and in the rehabilitation procedures of clinical disorders. The aim of this work was to verify the effects of vibrations on the osmotic fragility (OF) of red blood cells (RBC) isolated from whole blood submitted to OP. Heparinized blood samples were withdrawn from German dog, and distributed in tubes that were divided in three sets. A set of tubes was submitted to 0 Hz (control), the second set of tubes was submitted to 10 Hz and the third set to 20 Hz for 1 min in an OP. Then the OF of the RBC was determined, and the results indicate that the vibration promotes an increase on the hemolysis from 9 ± 1 to 20 ± 2% with 10 and 20 Hz, respectively. The shape of the OF curves for 10 and 20 Hz were similar. A significant difference (P<0.05) was found when a comparison was done with the control curve (0 Hz) and the experimental sets (10 and 20 Hz). Our findings therefore indicate that the increase of the frequency from 10 to 20 Hz seems to induce damage on the RBC membrane and this effect was dependent on the frequency. In addition, we suggest precaution with the use of the vibration generated in OP. Key words: Vibratory platform, hemolysis, frequency, erythrocyte membrane, blood.