Factors influencing erythrocyte aggregation – an investigation during routine student’s practice

In our course in biophysics for undergraduate students we have introduced the scientific area of hemorheology. In one of the practical exercises we study the effect of cellular and extracellular factors on polymer induced RBC aggregation. Over a number of years we have investigated the reproducibility of the model experiments concerning this last phenomenon with the aim of testing the possibility of performing scientific investigations during routine student’s practice. Qualitatively the results obtained are in accordance with the published studies in the literature from this scientific area. The reproducibility of the experiments is relatively good the mean coefficient of variation (CV) of the ZSR values at a particular polymer concentration is between 7 to 16%. Improvement may be achieved by better control of the mixing procedure during the preparation of the RBC suspensions. As a whole the results are encouraging and give us confidence that model scientific investigations during routine student’s practice are possible and realistic.