Proceedings

EPJ E Highlight - How red blood cells behave in crowded vessels

Red blood cells flowing through a blood vessel. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/blood-cells-red-medical-medicine-1813410/

A new model of red blood flowing through narrow capillaries shows that the cells change shape and alignment, allowing plasma to flow down the sides

Blood consists of a suspension of cells and other components in plasma, including red blood cells, which give it its red colour. When blood flows through the narrowest vessels in the body, known as the capillaries, the interactions between the cells become much more important. In a new study published in EPJ E, a team of researchers led by Ignacio Pagonabarraga from the University of Barcelona, Spain, has now developed a mathematical model of how red blood cells flow in narrow, crowded vessels. This could help design more precise methods for intravenous drug delivery, as well as 'microfluidic chips' incorporating artificial capillaries, which could offer faster, simpler and more precise blood-based diagnoses.

Pagonabarraga and his colleagues developed a model of red blood cells, which, as has been observed through the microscope, have slightly elastic walls, and are suspended in plasma with a force introduced to prevent contact between the cells. They also modelled various concentrations of cells flowing through channels two to three times wider in diameter than the cells themselves, which is typical of or slightly larger than the diameter of a capillary.

The group found that their cells tended to form a characteristic, 'slipper-like' shape, particularly at higher concentrations. Furthermore, in crowded conditions, when the viscosity of the suspension is greater than the surface tension between the fluid and the cell walls, the cells tended to align in the centre of the channel, allowing the liquid plasma to flow freely along the sides of the vessels. The design of both novel drug delivery devices and diagnostic 'labs-on-a-chip' could be facilitated by a deeper understanding of the mechanism of blood flow in capillaries; Pagonabarraga's model represents an important step in this direction.

This was our first experience of publishing with EPJ Web of Conferences. We contacted the publisher in the middle of September, just one month prior to the Conference, but everything went through smoothly. We have had published MNPS Proceedings with different publishers in the past, and would like to tell that the EPJ Web of Conferences team was probably the best, very quick, helpful and interactive. Typically, we were getting responses from EPJ Web of Conferences team within less than an hour and have had help at every production stage.
We are very thankful to Solange Guenot, Web of Conferences Publishing Editor, and Isabelle Houlbert, Web of Conferences Production Editor, for their support. These ladies are top-level professionals, who made a great contribution to the success of this issue. We are fully satisfied with the publication of the Conference Proceedings and are looking forward to further cooperation. The publication was very fast, easy and of high quality. My colleagues and I strongly recommend EPJ Web of Conferences to anyone, who is interested in quick high-quality publication of conference proceedings.

On behalf of the Organizing and Program Committees and Editorial Team of MNPS-2019, Dr. Alexey B. Nadykto, Moscow State Technological University “STANKIN”, Moscow, Russia. EPJ Web of Conferences vol. 224 (2019)

ISSN: 2100-014X (Electronic Edition)

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