Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 110, Issue 28, Pages 11326-11330Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1221297110
Keywords
adhesion dynamics; free energy analysis; disease cell; blood flow
Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health [R01HL094270]
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- DOE/Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment Award
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Vasoocclusion crisis is a key hallmark of sickle cell anemia. Although early studies suggest that this crisis is caused by blockage of a single elongated cell, recent experiments have revealed that vasoocclusion is a complex process triggered by adhesive interactions among different cell groups in multiple stages. However, the quantification of the biophysical characteristics of sickle cell anemia remains an open issue. Based on dissipative particle dynamics, we develop a multiscale model for the sickle red blood cells (SS-RBCs), accounting for diversity in both shapes and cell rigidities, to investigate the precise mechanism of vasoocclusion. First, we investigate the adhesive dynamics of a single SS-RBC in shear flow and static conditions, and find that the different cell groups (SS2: young-deformable SS-RBCs, ISCs: rigid-irreversible SS-RBCs) exhibit heterogeneous adhesive behavior due to the diverse cell morphologies and membrane rigidities. We quantify the observed adhesion behavior (in static conditions) in terms of a balance of free energies due to cell adhesion and deformation, and propose a power law that relates the free-energy increase as a function of the contact area. We further simulate postcapillary flow of SS-RBC suspensions with different cell fractions. The more adhesive SS2 cells interact with the vascular endothelium and trap ISC cells, resulting in vasoocclusion in vessels less than 12-14 mu m depending on the hematocrit. Under inflammation, adherent leukocytes may also trap ISC cells, resulting in vasoocclusion in even larger vessels.
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