A fractal approach to the rheology of concentrated cell suspensions

Results on the rheological behavior of novel CHO cell suspensions in a large range of concentrations are reported. The concentration dependent yield stress and elastic plateau modulus are formalized in the context of fractal aggregates under shear, and quite different exponents are found as compared to the case of red blood cell suspensions. This is explained in terms of intrinsic microscopic parameters such as the cell-cell adhesion energy and cell elasticity but also the cell individual dynamic properties, found to correlate well with viscoelastic data at large concentrations (phi>0.5).