How Viscoelastic Is Human Blood Plasma?

Recent experiments (Brust et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 2013, 110) revealed that blood plasma has a pronounced viscoelastic behavior. This claim was based on purely elastic effects observed in the collapse of a thin plasma filament and the fast flow of plasma inside a contraction–expansion microchannel.

Is blood viscoelastic?

In contrast to Newtonian fluids, blood plasma showed a strain-rate thinning viscosity behavior; this finding is clearly a feature of complex fluids and again indicates that blood plasma is viscoelastic.

Is blood plasma Newtonian?

Blood plasma has been considered a Newtonian fluid for decades. ... We find that although plasma is characterized by a spectrum of ultra-short relaxation times (on the order of 10-3-10-5 s), its elastic nature dominates in flows that feature high shear and extensional rates, such as blood flow in microvessels.