Rheology of Blood in the Microvasculature

DextransNear the end of World War II a vigorous search for plasma and blood substitutes was still under way. In 1945 Grönwall and Ingelman67 suggested the use of the polysaccharide dextran, a material obtained from the breakdown of sucrose by the bacterium Leuconostoc mesenteroides. They observed that the native material caused marked aggregation of erythrocytes and appeared to produce death by generalized embolization of the capillaries. If the material was hydrolyzed, this massive aggregation did not occur. These observations led Thorsén and Hint68 to explore in detail the mechanism of the effects of dextran upon the suspension stability of . . .