The Vroman effect in tube geometry: the influence of flow on protein adsorption measurements.

The transient adsorption of fibrinogen from plasma (a manifestation of the Vroman effect), due in large part to displacement by trace proteins such as high-molecular-weight kininogen (HK), factor XII, and plasminogen, has traditionally been studied in nonflowing systems in this laboratory. This paper reports new data on adsorption in tubing geometry under laminar flow. Fibrinogen adsorption from human blood plasma and whole blood diluted to varying exents was measured on glass and polyethylene tubing. The presence of flow did not change the nature of the Vroman effect, except that the processes of adsorption and displacement, which are typically diffusion-limited in static systems, were augmented by convective transport. At the highest applied shear rates of 408 and 510 s-1, the initial adsorption rate of fibrinogen was estimated to be 5.0 X 10(-5) cm/s on both surfaces. The intrinsic rate of displacement of fibrinogen (due to the Vroman effect) at high shear rates was about ten times faster from glass than from polyethylene based on data taken 5 min after the experiment started. The rates of fibrinogen adsorption and displacement were not observed to be significantly augmented by the cellular elements of whole blood at dilutions exceeding 20:1. The consistently observed axial dependence of adsorption in static and flow experiments in tubing geometry was investigated. It was concluded that the effect results, under most conditions, from the creation of a concentration boundary layer during the displacement of the equilibrating buffer by the injected protein solution. The possibility of local depletion due to rapid adsorption during injection or the final displacement of the protein solution was concluded to make lesser contributions to axial variations in measured adsorption.