Erythrocyte Sedimentation: Collapse of a High-Volume-Fraction Soft-Particle Gel

Alexis Darras*, Anil Kumar Dasanna, Thomas John, Gerhard Gompper, Lars Kaestner, Dmitry A. Fedosov, Christian Wagner

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The erythrocyte sedimentation rate is one of the oldest medical diagnostic methods whose physical mechanisms remain debatable today. Using both light microscopy and mesoscale cell-level simulations, we show that erythrocytes form a soft-particle gel. Furthermore, the high volume fraction of erythrocytes, their deformability, and weak attraction lead to unusual properties of this gel. A theoretical model for the gravitational collapse is developed, whose predictions are in agreement with detailed macroscopic measurements of the interface velocity.
Original languageEnglish
Article number088101
Number of pages7
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume128
Issue number8
Early online date23 Feb 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Feb 2022

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