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Elhanafy A, Elsagheer S, Ookawara S, Nada S. Numerical simulation of cellular blood flow in curved micro-vessels with saccular aneurysms: Effect of curvature degree and hematocrit level. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2024; 18:034101. [PMID: 38726374 PMCID: PMC11078268 DOI: 10.1063/5.0203220] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2024] [Accepted: 04/15/2024] [Indexed: 05/12/2024]
Abstract
The dynamics of cellular blood flow in curved vessels considerably differ from those in straight vessels. It is reported that clotting development is significantly affected by vessel shape irregularities. Thus, the current study aims to investigate the effect of curvature degree and hematocrit level on cellular blood flow in a curved micro-vessel with a saccular aneurysm. Accordingly, a three-dimensional numerical simulation is performed using a validated code developed for cellular blood flow problems. The obtained results show that the cell-free layer thickness is highly dependent on the curvature degree and hematocrit level, which may have a remarkable impact on the apparent viscosity of blood as well as the dynamics of other particles such as drug particulates. The near-wall region exhibits the highest degree of cell deformation, whereas the red blood cells within the aneurysm zone remain nearly undeformed. Meanwhile, the velocity of the red blood cells decreases with the increase in curvature degree, which can affect the quality of the oxygenation process. Because of the saccular aneurysm, a considerable decrease in plasma velocity is predicted. Moreover, no secondary flows are detected in the curved vessel except in the aneurysm zone. An increase in the curvature degree is expected to reduce the blood flow rate by about 10%. Furthermore, low wall shear stress values are predicted in the straight case compared to the values at the apex of the curved vessel, which may affect the structure and function of the endothelial cells of the vessel wall and, hence, increase the aneurysm rupture possibility.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Shinichi Ookawara
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan
| | - Sameh Nada
- Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: and
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Zavodszky G, Spieker C, Czaja B, van Rooij B. Cellular Blood Flow Modeling with HemoCell. Methods Mol Biol 2024; 2716:351-368. [PMID: 37702948 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3449-3_16] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/14/2023]
Abstract
Many of the intriguing properties of blood originate from its cellular nature. Bulk effects, such as viscosity, depend on the local shear rates and on the size of the vessels. While empirical descriptions of bulk rheology are available for decades, their validity is limited to the experimental conditions they were observed under. These are typically artificial scenarios (e.g., perfectly straight glass tube or in pure shear with no gradients). Such conditions make experimental measurements simpler; however, they do not exist in real systems (i.e., in a real human circulatory system). Therefore, as we strive to increase our understanding on the cardiovascular system and improve the accuracy of our computational predictions, we need to incorporate a more comprehensive description of the cellular nature of blood. This, however, presents several computational challenges that can only be addressed by high performance computing. In this chapter, we describe HemoCell ( https://www.hemocell.eu ), an open-source high-performance cellular blood flow simulation, which implements validated mechanical models for red blood cells and is capable of reproducing the emergent transport characteristics of such a complex cellular system. We discuss the accuracy and the range of validity, and demonstrate applications on a series of human diseases.
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Long L, Chen H, He Y, Mu L, Luan Y. Lingering Dynamics of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Red Blood Cells in Retinal Arteriolar Bifurcations. J Funct Biomater 2022; 13:205. [PMID: 36412846 PMCID: PMC9680457 DOI: 10.3390/jfb13040205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Revised: 10/14/2022] [Accepted: 10/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
It has been proven that the deformability of red blood cells (RBC) is reduced owing to changes in mechanical properties, such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension. To probe the effects of RBC morphological and physical parameters on the flow field in bifurcated arterioles, three types of RBC models with various degrees of biconcave shapes were built based on the in vitro experimental data. The dynamic behaviors of the RBCs in shear flow were simulated to validate the feasibility of the finite element-Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method with a moving mesh. The influences of the shear rate and viscosity ratios on RBC motions were investigated. The motion of RBCs in arteriolar bifurcations was further simulated. Abnormal variations in the morphological and physical parameters of RBCs may lead to diminished tank-tread motion and enhanced tumbling motion in shear flow. Moreover, abnormal RBC variations can result in slower RBC motion at the bifurcation with a longer transmit time and greater flow resistance, which may further cause inadequate local oxygen supply. These findings would provide useful insights into the microvascular complications in diabetes mellitus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lili Long
- Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116000, China
| | - Huimin Chen
- Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116000, China
| | - Ying He
- Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116000, China
| | - Lizhong Mu
- Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116000, China
| | - Yong Luan
- Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116011, China
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Czaja B, de Bouter J, Heisler M, Závodszky G, Karst S, Sarunic M, Maberley D, Hoekstra A. The effect of stiffened diabetic red blood cells on wall shear stress in a reconstructed 3D microaneurysm. Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin 2022; 25:1691-1709. [PMID: 35199620 DOI: 10.1080/10255842.2022.2034794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Blood flow within the vasculature of the retina has been found to influence the progression of diabetic retinopathy. In this research cell resolved blood flow simulations are used to study the pulsatile flow of whole blood through a segmented retinal microaneurysm. Images were collected using adaptive optics optical coherence tomography of the retina of a patient with diabetic retinopathy, and a sidewall (sacciform) microaneurysm was segmented from the volumetric data. The original microaneurysm neck width was varied to produce two additional aneurysm geometries in order to probe the influence of neck width on the transport of red blood cells and platelets into the aneurysm. Red blood cell membrane stiffness was also increased to resolve the impact of rigid red blood cells, as a result of diabetes, in blood flow. Wall shear stress and wall shear stress gradients were calculated throughout the aneurysm domains, and the quantification of the influence of the red blood cells is presented. Average wall shear stress and wall shear stress gradients increased due to the increase of red blood cell membrane stiffness. Stiffened red blood cells were also found to induce higher local wall shear stress and wall shear stress gradients as they passed through the leading and draining parental vessels. Stiffened red blood cells were found to penetrate the aneurysm sac more than healthy red blood cells, as well as decreasing the margination of platelets to the vessel walls of the parental vessel, which caused a decrease in platelet penetration into the aneurysm sac.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Czaja
- Computational Science Lab, Faculty of Science, Institute for Informatics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Jonathan de Bouter
- Computational Science Lab, Faculty of Science, Institute for Informatics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Morgan Heisler
- School of Engineering Science, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
| | - Gábor Závodszky
- Computational Science Lab, Faculty of Science, Institute for Informatics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.,Department of Hydrodynamic Systems, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Sonja Karst
- Department of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Marinko Sarunic
- School of Engineering Science, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
| | - David Maberley
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Alfons Hoekstra
- Computational Science Lab, Faculty of Science, Institute for Informatics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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Modeling Red Blood Cell Viscosity Contrast Using Inner Soft Particle Suspension. MICROMACHINES 2021; 12:mi12080974. [PMID: 34442596 PMCID: PMC8398941 DOI: 10.3390/mi12080974] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2021] [Revised: 08/10/2021] [Accepted: 08/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
The inner viscosity of a biological red blood cell is about five times larger than the viscosity of the blood plasma. In this work, we use dissipative particles to enable the proper viscosity contrast in a mesh-based red blood cell model. Each soft particle represents a coarse-grained virtual cluster of hemoglobin proteins contained in the cytosol of the red blood cell. The particle interactions are governed by conservative and dissipative forces. The conservative forces have purely repulsive character, whereas the dissipative forces depend on the relative velocity between the particles. We design two computational experiments that mimic the classical viscometers. With these experiments we study the effects of particle suspension parameters on the inner cell viscosity and provide parameter sets that result in the correct viscosity contrast. The results are validated with both static and dynamic biological experiment, showing an improvement in the accuracy of the original model without major increase in computational complexity.
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Chien W, Gompper G, Fedosov DA. Effect of cytosol viscosity on the flow behavior of red blood cell suspensions in microvessels. Microcirculation 2020; 28:e12668. [PMID: 33131140 DOI: 10.1111/micc.12668] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2020] [Revised: 09/24/2020] [Accepted: 10/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The flow behavior of blood is strongly affected by red blood cell (RBC) properties, such as the viscosity ratio C between cytosol and suspending medium, which can significantly be altered in several pathologies (e.g. sickle-cell disease, malaria). The main objective of this study is to understand the effect of C on macroscopic blood flow properties such as flow resistance in microvessels, and to link it to the deformation and dynamics of single RBCs. METHODS We employ mesoscopic hydrodynamic simulations to investigate flow properties of RBC suspensions with different cytosol viscosities for various flow conditions in cylindrical microchannels. RESULTS Starting from a dispersed cell configuration which approximates RBC dispersion at vessel bifurcations in the microvasculature, we find that the flow convergence and development of RBC-free layer (RBC-FL) depend only weakly on C, and require a convergence length in the range of 25D-50D, where D is channel diameter. In vessels with D ≤ 20 μ m , the final resistance of developed flow is nearly the same for C = 5 and C = 1, while for D = 40 μ m , the flow resistance for C = 5 is about 10% larger than for C = 1. The similarities and differences in flow resistance can be explained by viscosity-dependent RBC-FL thicknesses, which are associated with the viscosity-dependent dynamics of single RBCs. CONCLUSIONS The weak effect on the flow resistance and RBC-FL explains why RBCs can contain a high concentration of hemoglobin for efficient oxygen delivery, without a pronounced increase in the flow resistance. Furthermore, our results suggest that significant alterations in microvascular flow in various pathologies are likely not due to mere changes in cytosolic viscosity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Chien
- Theoretical Physics of Living Matter, Institute of Biological Information Processing and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Gerhard Gompper
- Theoretical Physics of Living Matter, Institute of Biological Information Processing and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Dmitry A Fedosov
- Theoretical Physics of Living Matter, Institute of Biological Information Processing and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
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Czaja B, Gutierrez M, Závodszky G, de Kanter D, Hoekstra A, Eniola-Adefeso O. The influence of red blood cell deformability on hematocrit profiles and platelet margination. PLoS Comput Biol 2020; 16:e1007716. [PMID: 32163405 PMCID: PMC7093031 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007716] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2019] [Revised: 03/24/2020] [Accepted: 02/05/2020] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The influence of red blood cell (RBC) deformability in whole blood on platelet margination is investigated using confocal microscopy measurements of flowing human blood and cell resolved blood flow simulations. Fluorescent platelet concentrations at the wall of a glass chamber are measured using confocal microscopy with flowing human blood containing varying healthy-to-stiff RBC fractions. A decrease is observed in the fluorescent platelet signal at the wall due to the increase of stiffened RBCs in flow, suggesting a decrease of platelet margination due to an increased fraction of stiffened RBCs present in the flow. In order to resolve the influence of stiffened RBCs on platelet concentration at the channel wall, cell-pair and bulk flow simulations are performed. For homogeneous collisions between RBC pairs, a decrease in final displacement after a collision with increasing membrane stiffness is observed. In heterogeneous collisions between healthy and stiff RBC pairs, it is found that the stiffened RBC is displaced most. The influence of RBC deformability on collisions between RBCs and platelets was found to be negligible due to their size and mass difference. For a straight vessel geometry with varying healthy-to-stiff RBC ratios, a decrease was observed in the red blood cell-free layer and platelet margination due to an increase in stiffened RBCs present in flow.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Czaja
- Computational Science Lab, Faculty of Science, Institute for Informatics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Mario Gutierrez
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Gábor Závodszky
- Computational Science Lab, Faculty of Science, Institute for Informatics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Department of Hydrodynamic Systems, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - David de Kanter
- Computational Science Lab, Faculty of Science, Institute for Informatics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Alfons Hoekstra
- Computational Science Lab, Faculty of Science, Institute for Informatics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Omolola Eniola-Adefeso
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
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Tan J, Ding Z, Hood M, Li W. Simulation of circulating tumor cell transport and adhesion in cell suspensions in microfluidic devices. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2019; 13:064105. [PMID: 31737154 PMCID: PMC6837944 DOI: 10.1063/1.5129787] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2019] [Accepted: 10/19/2019] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Understanding cell transport and adhesion dynamics under flow is important for many biotransport problems. We investigated the influence of cell size, ligand coating density, micropost size, and intercellular collisions on circulating tumor cell adhesion and transport in microfluidic devices. The cells were modeled as coarse-grained cell membranes and the adhesion was modeled as pairwise interacting potentials, while the fluid was solved using the lattice Boltzmann method. The coupling between the cell and the fluid was achieved through the immersed boundary method. The cell showed transient rolling adhesion in high shear regions and firm adhesion in low shear regions. The adhesive force for rolling cells on a micropost was increasing before the cell reached the crest of the post and then decreasing afterward. The adhesive strength for cells increases with ligand coating density. Cell trajectories in a microfluidic device with a shifted post design were studied as well. At low concentrations, the majority of the cells follow streamlines closely. However, the intercellular collision and collision from red blood cells impacted the cell trajectories. An L 2 norm of | e | was defined to characterize the difference between the cell trajectories and the associated streamlines. It was shown that | e | L 2 increases with micropost sizes and cell concentrations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jifu Tan
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115, USA
- Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: and
| | - Zhenya Ding
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409, USA
| | - Michael Hood
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115, USA
| | - Wei Li
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409, USA
- Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: and
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