Computational analysis of adhesion between a cancer cell and a white blood cell in a bifurcated microvessel

A general numerical model of leukocyte adhesion in microchannels

Leukocyte adhesion on the vascular endothelium plays an important role in human immune system and reflects the physiological condition of a human body. In this paper, a generally implementable dynamic adhesion model based on the length limit of microvilli was developed to explore the behavior of a suspended leukocyte's adhesion process under microchannel shear flow. Simulations showed that the whole adhesion process can be divided into cell sedimentation, preliminary adhesion and stable dynamic adhesion stages. The cell tumbling kinetics, cell deformation, cell adhesion area and adhesion force were studied under the conditions of various bond strength, cell membrane surface tension, inlet flow velocity and cytoplasmic viscosity. Results showed that the bond strength affects the cell tumbling behaviors differently by changing the adhesion force. The cell with lower membrane surface tension induces a larger adhesion area, and eventually results in a greater adhesion and a lower cell tumbling velocity. The flow velocity changes cell velocity through the flow viscous force during the whole adhesion process. The cytoplasmic viscosity affects adhesion mainly in the preliminary adhesion stage by changing the cell deformation rate but has slight effect on the stabilized dynamic adhesion on cells. This study provides a simple theoretical basis to further clarify the mechanism of cell behaviors under stress and adhesion and becomes one of the prerequisites for study of tissue inflammation, wound healing, and disease treatments.