Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique, UMR, 140 avenue de la physique, Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble, and CNRS, 38402 Saint Martin d'Heres, France.
Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Oct 30;103(18):188101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.188101. Epub 2009 Oct 26.
Understanding why red blood cells (RBCs) move with an asymmetric shape (slipperlike shape) in small blood vessels is a long-standing puzzle in blood circulatory research. By considering a vesicle (a model system for RBCs), we discovered that the slipper shape results from a loss in stability of the symmetric shape. It is shown that the adoption of a slipper shape causes a significant decrease in the velocity difference between the cell and the imposed flow, thus providing higher flow efficiency for RBCs. Higher membrane rigidity leads to a dramatic change in the slipper morphology, thus offering a potential diagnostic tool for cell pathologies.
理解为什么红细胞（RBCs）在小血管中以不对称形状（拖鞋形状）移动是血液循环研究中的一个长期难题。通过考虑一个囊泡（RBC 的模型系统），我们发现拖鞋形状是由于对称形状的不稳定性丧失而导致的。结果表明，采用拖鞋形状会导致细胞和强制流动之间的速度差显著减小，从而为 RBC 提供更高的流动效率。更高的膜刚性会导致拖鞋形态的剧烈变化，因此为细胞病理学提供了一种潜在的诊断工具。
