School of Engineering, Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, ON, P3E 2C6, Canada.
Biomech Model Mechanobiol. 2012 Mar;11(3-4):575-83. doi: 10.1007/s10237-011-0334-y. Epub 2011 Jul 9.
Red blood cell (RBC) motion and trajectories in bifurcated microvessels are simulated using a two-dimensional immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method (IB-LBM). A RBC is modeled as a capsule with viscous interior fluid enclosed by a flexible membrane. For the symmetric bifurcation model employed, the critical offset position in the mother branch, which separates the RBC flux toward the two branches, has been calculated. The RBC flux and the hematocrit partitioning between the two daughter branches have also been studied. Effects of the flow-rate ratio, cell deformability and suspending viscosity have been examined. Simulation results indicate that increased cell rigidity and suspending viscosity have counter effects on cell trajectory through a bifurcation: the cell trajectory shifts toward the low flow-rate branch for less deformable cells, and toward the high flow-rate branch for more viscous plasma. These results imply that a higher cell rigidity would reduce the regular phase separation of hematocrit and plasma skimming processes in microcirculation, while an increased viscosity has the opposite effect. This has implications for relevant studies in fundamental biology and biomedical applications.
使用二维浸入边界-格子玻尔兹曼方法（IB-LBM）模拟了分叉微管中红细胞（RBC）的运动和轨迹。将 RBC 模拟为一个胶囊，内部有粘性流体，由柔性膜封闭。对于所采用的对称分叉模型，已经计算出了在母分支中分离 RBC 流向两个分支的临界偏移位置。还研究了 RBC 通量和两个子分支之间的血细胞比容分配。检查了流速比、细胞变形性和悬浮粘度的影响。模拟结果表明，细胞刚性和悬浮粘度的增加对细胞通过分叉的轨迹有相反的影响：对于刚性较低的细胞，细胞轨迹向低流速分支移动，而对于粘性较高的血浆，细胞轨迹向高流速分支移动。这些结果表明，更高的细胞刚性会减少微循环中血细胞比容的规则相分离和血浆撇取过程，而增加粘度则会产生相反的效果。这对基础生物学和生物医学应用的相关研究具有重要意义。
