Dr. Igor Pivkin
The membrane properties of red blood cells (RBCs) control the cell's ability
to deform as they flow through capillaries or squeeze through the narrow
interendothelial slits of the venous sinus wall in the spleen. The RBC
membrane
is composed of a lipid bilayer and an attached cytoskeleton, which consists
primarily of spectrin proteins arranged in a network and linked by short
actin
filaments at junction-complexes. The importance of understanding the
mechanical
properties of RBCs has motivated a number of experimental, theoretical and
numerical studies.
We will present a computational framework for modeling red blood cells
(RBCs)
using Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD). The three dimensional RBC model
takes into account constraints of fixed surface area and fixed enclosed
volume,
bending energy, in-plane shear energy and viscous effects of the membrane
and
internal fluid. The model is validated using quantitative experimental
measurements of flow characteristics of individual RBCs in microfluidic
systems.
|
