Motion of Red Blood Cells in Capillaries With Variable Cross-Sections

1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 538-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. W. Secomb ◽  
R. Hsu

Red blood cells undergo continual deformation when traversing microvessels in living tissues. This may contribute to higher resistance to blood flow observed in living microvessels, compared with that in corresponding uniform glass tubes. We use a theoretical model to simulate single-file motion of red cells though capillaries with variable cross-sections, assuming axisymmetric geometry. Effects of cell membrane shear viscosity and elasticity are included, but bending resistance is neglected. Lubrication theory is used to describe the flow of surrounding plasma. When a red cell encounters a region of capillary narrowing, additional energy is dissipated, due to membrane viscosity, and due to narrowing of the lubrication layer, increasing the flow resistance. Predicted resistance to cell motion in a vessel with periodic constrictions (diameter varying between 5 μm and 4 μm) is roughly twice that in a uniform vessel with diameter 4.5 μm. Effects of transient red cell deformations may contribute significantly to blood flow resistance in living microvessels.

Soft Matter ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 4258-4267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry A. Fedosov ◽  
Matti Peltomäki ◽  
Gerhard Gompper

The behavior of red blood cells (RBCs) in microvessels plays an important role in blood flow resistance and in the cell partitioning within a microcirculatory network. We employ mesoscopic hydrodynamic simulations to study the behavior and deformation of single RBCs in microchannels yielding the construction of diagrams of RBC shapes for a wide range of flow conditions.


Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1020
Author(s):  
Angiolo Farina ◽  
Antonio Fasano ◽  
Fabio Rosso

Blood rheology is a challenging subject owing to the fact that blood is a mixture of a fluid (plasma) and of cells, among which red blood cells make about 50% of the total volume. It is precisely this circumstance that originates the peculiar behavior of blood flow in small vessels (i.e., roughly speaking, vessel with a diameter less than half a millimeter). In this class we find arteriolas, venules, and capillaries. The phenomena taking place in microcirculation are very important in supporting life. Everybody knows the importance of blood filtration in kidneys, but other phenomena, of not less importance, are known only to a small class of physicians. Overviewing such subjects reveals the fascinating complexity of microcirculation.


1978 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Kakiuchi ◽  
A. B. DuBois ◽  
D. Gorenberg

Hansen's membrane manometer method for measuring plasma colloid osmotic pressure was used to obtain the osmolality changes of dogs breathing different levels of CO2. Osmotic pressure was converted to osmolality by calibration of the manometer with saline and plasma, using freezing point depression osmometry. The addition of 10 vol% of CO2 to tonometered blood caused about a 2.0 mosmol/kg H2O increase of osmolality, or 1.2% increase of red blood cell volume. The swelling of the red blood cells was probably due to osmosis caused by Cl- exchanged for the HCO3- which was produced rapidly by carbonic anhydrase present in the red blood cells. The change in colloid osmotic pressure accompanying a change in co2 tension was measured on blood obtained from dogs breathing different CO2 mixtures. It was approximately 0.14 mosmol/kg H2O per Torr Pco2. The corresponding change in red cell volume could not be calculated from this because water can exchange between the plasma and tissues.


Author(s):  
Danny Bluestein ◽  
João S. Soares ◽  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Chao Gao ◽  
Seetha Pothapragada ◽  
...  

The coagulation cascade of blood may be initiated by flow induced platelet activation, which prompts clot formation in prosthetic cardiovascular devices and arterial disease processes. While platelet activation may be induced by biochemical agonists, shear stresses arising from pathological flow patterns enhance the propensity of platelets to activate and initiate the intrinsic pathway of coagulation, leading to thrombosis. Upon activation platelets undergo complex biochemical and morphological changes: organelles are centralized, membrane glycoproteins undergo conformational changes, and adhesive pseudopods are extended. Activated platelets polymerize fibrinogen into a fibrin network that enmeshes red blood cells. Activated platelets also cross-talk and aggregate to form thrombi. Current numerical simulations to model this complex process mostly treat blood as a continuum and solve the Navier-Stokes equations governing blood flow, coupled with diffusion-convection-reaction equations. It requires various complex constitutive relations or simplifying assumptions, and is limited to μm level scales. However, molecular mechanisms governing platelet shape change upon activation and their effect on rheological properties can be in the nm level scales. To address this challenge, a multiscale approach which departs from continuum approaches, may offer an effective means to bridge the gap between macroscopic flow and cellular scales. Molecular dynamics (MD) and dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) methods have been employed in recent years to simulate complex processes at the molecular scales, and various viscous fluids at low-to-high Reynolds numbers at mesoscopic scales. Such particle methods possess important properties at the mesoscopic scale: complex fluids with heterogeneous particles can be modeled, allowing the simulation of processes which are otherwise very difficult to solve by continuum approaches. It is becoming a powerful tool for simulating complex blood flow, red blood cells interactions, and platelet-mediated thrombosis involving platelet activation, aggregation, and adhesion.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 494-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank A. Oski

The red blood cells of the human fetus differ in many major respects from the red cells of the normal adult. These differences appear admirably suited for the acquisition, transport, and release of oxygen in the low oxygen atmosphere of intrauterine existence. These same differences appear to confer a handicap to the cell in the extrauterine environment, particularly under conditions of hypoxic stress. The rapid replacement of these cells by artificial means, such as early exchange transfusion, may offer an advantage to the newborn infant in certain clinical situations.


1978 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Bard ◽  
J. C. Fouron ◽  
J. E. Robillard ◽  
A. Cornet ◽  
M. A. Soukini

Studies were carried out during fetal life in sheep to determine the relationship of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (DPG), the intracellular red cell and extracellular pH, and the switchover to adult hemoglobin synthesis in regulating the position of the fetal red cell oxygen-affinity curve in utero. Adult hemoglobin first appeared near 120 days of gestation. The mean oxygen tension at which hemoglobin is half saturated (P50) prior to 120 days of gestation remained constant at 13.9 +/- 0.3 (SD) Torr and then increased gradually as gestation continued, reaching 19 Torr at term. During the interval of fetal life studied, the level of DPG was 4.43 +/- 1.63 (SD) micromol/g Hb and the deltapH between plasma and red blood cells was 0.227 +/- 0.038 (SD); neither was affected by gestational age. The decrease in the red cell oxygen affinity after 120 days of gestation ocrrelated with the amount of adult hemoglobin present in the fetus (r = 0.78; P less than 0.001). This decrease can be attributed only to the amount of the adult-type hemoglobin present, and not to DPG, or to changes in the deltapH between plasma and red blood cells, because both remained stable during the last trimester.


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