Numerical simulation of motion and deformation of healthy and sick red blood cell through a constricted vessel using hybrid lattice Boltzmann-immersed boundary method.

In the present article, hybrid lattice Boltzmann-immersed boundary method is utilized to simulate two-dimensional incompressible viscous flow involving flexible immersed red blood cell (RBC) in a microchannel. The main focus of the present research is to study motion and deformation of both healthy and sick RBCs in a vessel with different sizes of stenosis. The presented computational results consent reasonably well with the available data in the literature. Two different channels i.e. a simple and a constricted channel are investigated in the present manuscript. The results show that the RBC transfer and deform without any lift force and rotation induced when it is located on the symmetry axis of the microchannel. However, when the RBC is located off the symmetry axis, the pressure difference produced in the flow around the RBC would apply lift forces on them and expel them towards the center of the channel. The healthy RBC always shows more deformation related to the sick one along the channel. Another important result of the present research is that for the ratio of [Formula: see text] a sick RBC cannot pass the stenosis, and it reasons serious difficulties for body. The present results have been compared with the available experimental and numerical results which show good agreements.

SDS-PAGE Analysis of the Outer Membrane Proteins of Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Isolated from Patients in Different Wards of Nemazee Hospital, Shiraz, Iran.

BACKGROUND: Outer membrane proteins (OMPs) constitute the main structure and about half of the cell wall of Gram-negative bacteria. The OMPs of Escherichia coli (E. coli) play an important role in its drug resistance. Previous studies have shown that the OMPs of E. coli enhance its pathogenic effects by helping the bacterium to evade the immune defense and promote its adsorption to host cells. We sought to compare E. coli isolates collected from different hospital wards and to perform a primary investigation of the association between the serotypes and profiles of their OMPs. We also aimed to detect the diversity of the E. coli isolates from the hospitalized patients. METHODS: A total of 115 isolates of E. coli were collected from patients hospitalized in Nemazee Hospital, Shiraz, Iran. After biochemical and serological tests, OMPs were extracted by using glass beads and N-Lauroylsarcosine sodium. OMP typing was done by 10% SDS-PAGE and Coomassie brilliant blue staining. In terms of the number of protein bands, OMP-I was detected with 2 bands, OMP-α with 3 bands, and OMP-ß with1 band. RESULTS: Of the 115 isolates, 103 were OMP-I and 12 were OMP-α; none of the isolates belonged to OMP-ß. Our statistical analyses showed a relationship between OMP patterns and other factors, including hospital wards and source of samples. Serotyping showed that the majority of the isolates were O128. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated some similarities between the OMP band patterns of the analyzed groups of E. coli. Of all the OMPs in the isolates from the hospitalized and outpatient department patients, OmpA and OmpC were the most prevalent proteins in the outer membrane of the studied uropathogenic E. coli.