Centrifugal method of determining red cell deformability

A recently developed technique for deforming red blood cells (RBC) in which they are centrifuged through buffer and into a glutaraldehyde solution was evaluated as a method of assessing cellular deformability (i.e., the ability of the entire RBC to form a new configuration). To accomplish this, RBC populations of differing cellular deformability were tested, using three generally accepted techniques to obtain these differences: partial fixation with low concentrations of glutaraldehyde, density fractionation, and suspension of RBC in nonisotonic media. Our results indicate that at a constant deforming force the mean deformed length of the RBC decreased under conditions where cellular deformability is known to decrease, thus suggesting the usefulness of this centrifugal method for the estimation of this cellular property.