Drag-reducing polymers (DRPs) can significantly improve blood circulation when added to blood at a nanomolar concentration, manifesting great potential for application in the biomedical field. In this work, hyaluronic acid (HA) was selected as a natural DRP, and its effects on blood microcirculation at different concentrations, flow rates, and channel geometry were studied in microchannels. The experimental results show that adding a small dose of HA can increase the velocity and shorten the thickness of the cell-free layer (CFL or cell depletion layer (CDL)) near the wall. After considering efficiency, our experiments determined 50 ppm addition of HA to be the most suitable amount for improving blood circulation. Our results demonstrate that HA has high efficiency in improving the circulation of blood flow and shed light on unveiling the mechanism of using natural DRPs to cure some cardiovascular diseases.
Keywords: Cell-free layer; Hyaluronic acid; Microcirculation; Red blood cell; Velocity.
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