The effect of copper ions on sedimentation rates of erythrocytes

Whether copper sulfate affects the sedimentation rate of erythrocytes in blood was investigated. We performed the experiment by placing by 1ml of blood in plastic vials. After that, we added 10/spl mu/l of 1% CuSO/sub 4/ solution to an aliquot. Then, we put 10/spl mu/l of 5% of CuSO/sub 4/ to 1ml of the same blood into different vial. Following this procedure, we incubated the blood with the various concentrations of CuSO/sub 4/ to 37 degrees Celcius for ten minutes. Then, we determined the sedimentation rates of the red blood cells (RBCs) for the control, the blood that contained .001% of CuSO/sub 4/, and the blood that contained .005% of CuSO/sub 4/. We repeated this experiment with fourteen (n=14) different samples of blood. The results indicate that there was a statistical significance (P