Rheological properties of blood after whole body gamma-irradiation

Background: The study of rheological properties of blood has special interest since it is a circulating fluid exposed to shear rates during its life time. This work aims to investigate the influence of whole body gamma irradiation on the rheological properties of rat’s blood. The applied shear rate was from 12 to 375 s-1. Low shear viscosity (up to 100 s-1) depends mainly on the erythrocytes aggregation while the high shear viscosity depends on the erythrocytes deformability. Materials and Methods: Adult male rats were exposed to 1, 2.5, 3.5, 5, 7 and 9 Gy single doses. The consistency index, apparent viscosity, yield stress and aggregation index were increased after exposure to gamma radiation. The dielectric properties of the erythrocytes, in the low frequency range (60 Hz to 40 kHz), were measured in order to investigate the changes in the membrane surface charge. Results: The results obtained indicate that the viscosity, consistency index and yield stress increased after the exposure to the lowest dose taken 1 Gy, and continued to increase as the exposure dose increased up to dose 7 Gy and then decrease after exposure to 9 Gy. The relative permittivity and relaxation time showed significant decrease after exposure to the lowest dose and continue to decrease as the dose increased. Conclusion: The obtained results can be attributed to the decrease of membrane surface charge after exposure to gamma radiation. The decrease in the membrane surface charge is known to decrease the repulsion between the cells and increase blood viscosity. Iran. J. Radiat. Res., 2009 7 (1): 1117