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Venezian R, Khalil ISM. Understanding Robustness of Magnetically Driven Helical Propulsion in Viscous Fluids Using Sensitivity Analysis. ADVANCED THEORY AND SIMULATIONS 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/adts.202100519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Roberto Venezian
- Department of Biomechanical Engineering Faculty of Engineering Technology University of Twente Enschede 7500 AE The Netherlands
| | - Islam S. M. Khalil
- Department of Biomechanical Engineering Faculty of Engineering Technology University of Twente Enschede 7500 AE The Netherlands
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Striggow F, Medina-Sánchez M, Auernhammer GK, Magdanz V, Friedrich BM, Schmidt OG. Sperm-Driven Micromotors Moving in Oviduct Fluid and Viscoelastic Media. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2020; 16:e2000213. [PMID: 32431083 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202000213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2020] [Revised: 03/30/2020] [Accepted: 04/20/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Biohybrid micromotors propelled by motile cells are fascinating entities for autonomous biomedical operations on the microscale. Their operation under physiological conditions, including highly viscous environments, is an essential prerequisite to be translated to in vivo settings. In this work, a sperm-driven microswimmer, referred to as a spermbot, is demonstrated to operate in oviduct fluid in vitro. The viscoelastic properties of bovine oviduct fluid (BOF), one of the fluids that sperm cells encounter on their way to the oocyte, are first characterized using passive microrheology. This allows to design an artificial oviduct fluid to match the rheological properties of oviduct fluid for further experiments. Sperm motion is analyzed and it is confirmed that kinetic parameters match in real and artificial oviduct fluids, respectively. It is demonstrated that sperm cells can efficiently couple to magnetic microtubes and propel them forward in media of different viscosities and in BOF. The flagellar beat pattern of coupled as well as of free sperm cells is investigated, revealing an alteration on the regular flagellar beat, presenting an on-off behavior caused by the additional load of the microtube. Finally, a new microcap design is proposed to improve the overall performance of the spermbot in complex biofluids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Friedrich Striggow
- Institute for Integrative Nanosciences, Leibniz IFW Dresden e.V., Helmholtzstraße 20, Dresden, 01069, Germany
| | - Mariana Medina-Sánchez
- Institute for Integrative Nanosciences, Leibniz IFW Dresden e.V., Helmholtzstraße 20, Dresden, 01069, Germany
| | - Günter K Auernhammer
- Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V., Hohe Straße 6, Dresden, 01069, Germany
| | - Veronika Magdanz
- Institute for Integrative Nanosciences, Leibniz IFW Dresden e.V., Helmholtzstraße 20, Dresden, 01069, Germany
- Applied Zoology, Faculty of Biology, TU Dresden, Zellescher Weg 20 b, Dresden, 01069, Germany
| | | | - Oliver G Schmidt
- Institute for Integrative Nanosciences, Leibniz IFW Dresden e.V., Helmholtzstraße 20, Dresden, 01069, Germany
- School of Science, TU Dresden, Dresden, 01062, Germany
- Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes (MAIN) Rosenbergstraße 6, TU Chemnitz, Chemnitz, 09126, Germany
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Khalil ISM, Klingner A, Hamed Y, Magdanz V, Toubar M, Misra S. Characterization of Flagellar Propulsion of Soft Microrobotic Sperm in a Viscous Heterogeneous Medium. Front Robot AI 2019; 6:65. [PMID: 33501080 PMCID: PMC7806117 DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2019.00065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2018] [Accepted: 07/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Several microorganisms swim by a beating flagellum more rapidly in solutions with gel-like structure than they do in low-viscosity mediums. In this work, we aim to model and investigate this behavior in low Reynolds numbers viscous heterogeneous medium using soft microrobotic sperm samples. The microrobots are actuated using external magnetic fields and the influence of immersed obstacles on the flagellar propulsion is investigated. We use the resistive-force theory to predict the deformation of the beating flagellum, and the method of regularized Stokeslets for computing Stokes flows around the microrobot and the immersed obstacles. Our analysis and experiments show that obstacles in the medium improves the propulsion even when the Sperm number is not optimal (Sp ≠ 2.1). Experimental results also show propulsion enhancement for concentration range of 0−5% at relatively low actuation frequencies owing to the pressure gradient created by obstacles in close proximity to the beating flagellum. At relatively high actuation frequency, speed reduction is observed with the concentration of the obstacles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Islam S M Khalil
- Department of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
| | - Anke Klingner
- Department of Physics, The German University in Cairo, New Cairo, Egypt
| | - Youssef Hamed
- Department of Physics, The German University in Cairo, New Cairo, Egypt
| | - Veronika Magdanz
- Applied Zoology, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany
| | - Mohamed Toubar
- Department of Physics, The German University in Cairo, New Cairo, Egypt
| | - Sarthak Misra
- Department of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
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Khalil ISM, Klingner A, Magdanz V, Striggow F, Medina‐Sánchez M, Schmidt OG, Misra S. Modeling of Spermbots in a Viscous Colloidal Suspension. ADVANCED THEORY AND SIMULATIONS 2019. [DOI: 10.1002/adts.201900072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Islam S. M. Khalil
- Department of Biomechanical EngineeringUniversity of Twente 7522 NB Enschede The Netherlands
| | - Anke Klingner
- The German University in Cairo 11835 New Cairo Egypt
| | - Veronika Magdanz
- Institute for Integrative NanosciencesLeibniz IFW 01069 Dresden Germany
- Applied ZoologyTechnical University of Dresden 01062 Dresden Germany
| | | | | | - Oliver G. Schmidt
- Institute for Integrative NanosciencesLeibniz IFW 01069 Dresden Germany
- Center for MaterialsArchitectures and Integration of Nanomembranes, TU Chemnitz 09107 Chemnitz Germany
| | - Sarthak Misra
- Department of Biomechanical EngineeringUniversity of Twente 7522 NB Enschede The Netherlands
- Department of Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of Groningen and University Medical Center Groningen 9713 AV Groningen The Netherlands
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Kamal A, Keaveny EE. Enhanced locomotion, effective diffusion and trapping of undulatory micro-swimmers in heterogeneous environments. J R Soc Interface 2018; 15:rsif.2018.0592. [PMID: 30487240 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2018.0592] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2018] [Accepted: 11/01/2018] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Swimming cells and microorganisms must often move through complex fluids that contain an immersed microstructure such as polymer molecules or filaments. In many important biological processes, such as mammalian reproduction and bacterial infection, the size of the immersed microstructure is comparable to that of the swimming cells. This leads to discrete swimmer-microstructure interactions that alter the swimmer's path and speed. In this paper, we use a combination of detailed simulation and data-driven stochastic models to examine the motion of a planar undulatory swimmer in an environment of spherical obstacles tethered via linear springs to random points in the plane of locomotion. We find that, depending on environmental parameters, the interactions with the obstacles can enhance swimming speeds or prevent the swimmer from moving at all. We also show how the discrete interactions produce translational and angular velocity fluctuations that over time lead to diffusive behaviour primarily due to the coupling of swimming and rotational diffusion. Our results demonstrate that direct swimmer-microstructure interactions can produce changes in swimmer motion that may have important implications for the spreading of cell populations in or the trapping of harmful pathogens by complex fluids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arshad Kamal
- Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Eric E Keaveny
- Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London, UK
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Zöttl A, Stark H. Simulating squirmers with multiparticle collision dynamics. THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL. E, SOFT MATTER 2018; 41:61. [PMID: 29766348 DOI: 10.1140/epje/i2018-11670-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2018] [Accepted: 04/23/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Multiparticle collision dynamics is a modern coarse-grained simulation technique to treat the hydrodynamics of Newtonian fluids by solving the Navier-Stokes equations. Naturally, it also includes thermal noise. Initially it has been applied extensively to spherical colloids or bead-spring polymers immersed in a fluid. Here, we review and discuss the use of multiparticle collision dynamics for studying the motion of spherical model microswimmers called squirmers moving in viscous fluids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Zöttl
- Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, 1 Keble Road, OX1 3NP, Oxford, UK.
- Institute for Theoretical Physics, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstr. 36, 10623, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Holger Stark
- Institute for Theoretical Physics, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstr. 36, 10623, Berlin, Germany
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Agrawal A, Babu SB. Self-organization in a bimotility mixture of model microswimmers. Phys Rev E 2018; 97:020401. [PMID: 29548189 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.97.020401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2017] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
We study the cooperation and segregation dynamics in a bimotility mixture of microorganisms which swim at low Reynolds numbers via periodic deformations along the body. We employ a multiparticle collision dynamics method to simulate a two component mixture of artificial swimmers, termed as Taylor lines, which differ from each other only in the propulsion speed. The analysis reveals that a contribution of slower swimmers towards clustering, on average, is much larger as compared to the faster ones. We notice distinctive self-organizing dynamics, depending on the percentage difference in the speed of the two kinds. If this difference is large, the faster ones fragment the clusters of the slower ones in order to reach the boundary and form segregated clusters. Contrarily, when it is small, both kinds mix together at first, the faster ones usually leading the cluster and then gradually the slower ones slide out thereby also leading to segregation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adyant Agrawal
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India
| | - Sujin B Babu
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India
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Zeitz M, Wolff K, Stark H. Active Brownian particles moving in a random Lorentz gas. THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL. E, SOFT MATTER 2017; 40:23. [PMID: 28236113 DOI: 10.1140/epje/i2017-11510-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2016] [Accepted: 02/02/2017] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Biological microswimmers often inhabit a porous or crowded environment such as soil. In order to understand how such a complex environment influences their spreading, we numerically study non-interacting active Brownian particles (ABPs) in a two-dimensional random Lorentz gas. Close to the percolation transition in the Lorentz gas, they perform the same subdiffusive motion as ballistic and diffusive particles. However, due to their persistent motion they reach their long-time dynamics faster than passive particles and also show superdiffusive motion at intermediate times. While above the critical obstacle density [Formula: see text] the ABPs are trapped, their long-time diffusion below [Formula: see text] is strongly influenced by the propulsion speed v0. With increasing v0, ABPs are stuck at the obstacles for longer times. Thus, for large propulsion speed, the long-time diffusion constant decreases more strongly in a denser obstacle environment than for passive particles. This agrees with the behavior of an effective swimming velocity and persistence time, which we extract from the velocity autocorrelation function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Zeitz
- Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 36, 10623, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Katrin Wolff
- Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 36, 10623, Berlin, Germany
| | - Holger Stark
- Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 36, 10623, Berlin, Germany
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