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 10μl of 1% CuSO₄ solution to an aliquot. Then, we put 10μl of 5% of CuSO₄ to 1ml of the same blood into different vial. Following this procedure, we incubated the blood with the various concentrations of CuSO₄ 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 CuSO₄, and the blood that contained .005% of CuSO₄. We repeated this experiment with fourteen (n=14) different samples of blood. The results indicate that there was a statistical significance (P<.05) in the sedimentation rate of the blood that contained the .005% of CuSO₄ and the control were different In addition, there was a statistical significance (P<.05) that there was a difference in sedimentation rate between the .001% CuSO₄ and .005% CuSO₄. The results also show that there is no difference in sedimentation between .001% and the control.