Viscoelastic transient of confined red blood cells

We present the results of a study of the transient startup time of red blood cells confined in microchannels. We show that this response time depends on the imposed flow velocity and offer a theoretical model to explain this dependence. Our model allows us to determine the effective viscosity as well as the elastic modulus involved in the phenomenon. The experimental results and the theoretical model are validated by numerical simulations which we use to obtain the value of the viscosity of the membrane-cytoskeleton complex