Abstract In this paper the theory of micropolar fluids with stretch is used to analyze blood flow in comparatively small arteries, say 100 μ dia. Physically micropolar fluids with stretch can provide a mathematical model to represent blood with its deformable substructure, since not only the independent rotation of red cells but also the flexibility of the cells are taken into account by the stretch or compression of the particles in plasma. No-slip conditions are assumed for the boundary conditions of the velocity, but the vorticity and the stretch of cells are not required to vanish at the boundaries. Exact solutions to the system of governing equations are given in a simple closed form. The explicit expressions of the velocity, microrotation velocity, microstretch are obtained. The results presented graphically are quite encouraging.