Erythrocyte deformability responses to intermittent and continuous subhemolytic shear stress

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated that red blood cells (RBC) either lyse or at least experience mechanical damage following prolonged exposure to high shear stress (>= 100 Pa). Conversely, prolonged shear stress exposure within the physiological range (5-20 Pa, 300 s) was recently reported to improve RBC deformability. This study investigated the relationships between shear stress and RBC deformability to determine the breakpoint between beneficial vs. detrimental exposure to shear stress (i.e., "subhemolytic threshold"). A second aim of the study was to determine whether the frequency of intermittent application of shear stress influenced the subhemolytic threshold.