Kinetics of rouleaux formation using TV image analyzer. II. Rat erythrocytes.

With the use of a rheoscope combined with a TV image analyzer, the kinetics of specific pathogen-free rat erythrocyte aggregation was studied. Under certain conditions (gamma 7.5 s-1, hematocrit 0.36%, in own plasma, at 25 degrees C) one-dimensional aggregates (rouleaux) were formed without the development of three-dimensional aggregates, perhaps because of very low concentration of gamma-globulin. The observed phenomena could be explained by 1) the erythrocyte sedimentation and 2) the rouleaux formation. The time courses, of the biphasic change in erythrocyte count and of the increments in total area and in the area/count, were successfully simulated by a kinetic model of linear polymerization, assuming a sedimentation rate constant and an association rate constant. Further, a Poissonlike distribution of the length of rouleaux was shown, as predicted theoretically on the basis of the same kinetic model.