Blood viscosity: influence of erythrocyte aggregation.

The addition of purified canine or bovine fibrinogen to suspensions of canine erythocytes in Ringer solution caused an increase in viscosity and the formation of aggregates of erythocytes. Both of these effects became increasingly pronounced as the fibrinogen concentration was raised, and they approached plateaus with 1 gram of fibrinogen per 100 milliliters. An increase in shear rate (or shear stress) reduced both the effect on viscosity and the aggregate size. The data suggest that fibrinogen causes an increase in blood viscosity and a departure from Newtonian behavior by interacting with erythrocytes to form cell aggregates which can be dispersed by shear stress.