The appearance of aggregated erythrocytes in the peripheral blood of individuals with insulin resistance

Abstract

Insulin resistance is associated with an enhanced degree of erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation and this is related to the presence of enhanced inflammation-sensitive plasma proteins that are part of the acute-phase response. These findings might have hemorheological consequences and might contribute to the pathophysiology of the insulin-resistance syndrome.

Increased red blood cell adhesiveness/aggregation owing to fibrinogen elevation in hypercholesterolaemic patients and the rationale of fibrinogen‐lowering by LDL apheresis: authors’ reply

“…However, we disagree about the standardization issue. In fact, we have by now analyzed approximately 2000 samples from different inflammatory conditions and found that the results of the slide test are generally not inferior to those obtained by other commonly used markers of the acute-phase response [9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. We do agree, however, that our slide test is not affected to a significant degree by protein-independent aggregability.The slide test was developed as a low-cost real-time and point of care methodology to reveal the presence of enhanced red cell adhesiveness / aggregation in the peripheral blood [16].…”

Association of components of the metabolic syndrome with the appearance of aggregated red blood cells in the peripheral blood. An unfavorable hemorheological finding

“…For example, enhanced erythrocyte aggregation has been described in hypertension [38,39], hypercholesterolemia [40,41], hypertriglyceridemia [42], obesity [43] as well as in insulin resistance [5]. Thus, the aggregability of the cells might indeed reflect the presence of lowgrade inflammation and enhanced synthesis of adhesive proteins [44].…”

“…The aggregation of red blood cells in the peripheral blood was performed by the ERYTHROSENSE technology [5,18,19]. In brief, blood from the antecubital vein was obtained between 8 and 11 AM following an overnight fast.…”

“…In a recent work, we have evaluated the possibility that low-grade inflammation and the presence of inflammation sensitive proteins, can be associated with enhanced erythrocyte aggregation in individuals with insulin resistance [5]. A significant correlation was noted between insulin resistance expressed as HOMA index and the degree of erythrocyte aggregation in a group of 129 participants who were also evaluated for the presence of low-grade inflammation.…”

Microcirculation and the Metabolic Syndrome

“…Erythrocyte deformability and/or aggregation is an important determinant of passage of blood through capillaries. The degree of erythrocyte aggregation is correlated with the IR index HOMA [ 189 , 405 ]. High hematocrit is inversely related to small vessel endothelial‐dependent vasodilatation [ 280 ].…”