A micro-scale simulation of red blood cell passage through symmetric and asymmetric bifurcated vessels.

Blood exhibits a heterogeneous nature of hematocrit, velocity, and effective viscosity in microcapillaries. Microvascular bifurcations have a significant influence on the distribution of the blood cells and blood flow behavior. This paper presents a simulation study performed on the two-dimensional motions and deformation of multiple red blood cells in microvessels with diverging and converging bifurcations. Fluid dynamics and membrane mechanics were incorporated. Effects of cell shape, hematocrit, and deformability of the cell membrane on rheological behavior of the red blood cells and the hemodynamics have been investigated. It was shown that the blood entering the daughter branch with a higher flow rate tended to receive disproportionally more cells. The results also demonstrate that red blood cells in microvessels experienced lateral migration in the parent channel and blunted velocity profiles in both straight section and daughter branches, and this effect was influenced by the shape and the initial position of the cells, the hematocrit, and the membrane deformability. In addition, a cell free region around the tip of the confluence was observed. The simulation results are qualitatively consistent with existing experimental findings. This study may provide fundamental knowledge for a better understanding of hemodynamic behavior of micro-scale blood flow.

A Two-Dimensional Numerical Investigation of Transport of Malaria-Infected Red Blood Cells in Stenotic Microchannels.

The malaria-infected red blood cells experience a significant decrease in cell deformability and increase in cell membrane adhesion. Blood hemodynamics in microvessels is significantly affected by the alteration of the mechanical property as well as the aggregation of parasitized red blood cells. In this study, we aim to numerically study the connection between cell-level mechanobiological properties of human red blood cells and related malaria disease state by investigating the transport of multiple red blood cell aggregates passing through microchannels with symmetric stenosis. Effects of stenosis magnitude, aggregation strength, and cell deformability on cell rheology and flow characteristics were studied by a two-dimensional model using the fictitious domain-immersed boundary method. The results indicated that the motion and dissociation of red blood cell aggregates were influenced by these factors and the flow resistance increases with the increase of aggregating strength and cell stiffness. Further, the roughness of the velocity profile was enhanced by cell aggregation, which considerably affected the blood flow characteristics. The study may assist us in understanding cellular-level mechanisms in disease development.