Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 6: Focus: Soft Particles in Flows I (joint focus session CPP/DY)
CPP 6.5: Invited Talk
Monday, March 20, 2017, 11:45–12:15, ZEU 160
Intricate dynamics and morphology of red blood cells under physiological flow conditions — Johannes Mauer1, Luca Lanotte2, Simon Mendez3, Viviana Claveria2, Franck Nicoud3, Manouk Abkarian2, Gerhard Gompper1, and •Dmitry A. Fedosov1 — 1Institute of Complex Systems, Forschungszentrum Juelich, 52425 Juelich, Germany — 2Centre de Biochimie Structurale, CNRS UMR 5048, University of Montpellier, 34090 Montpellier, France — 3Institut Montpellierain Alexander Grothendieck, UMR5149, University of Montpellier, 34095 Montpellier, France
Red blood cells (RBCs) constitute the major cellular part of blood. They have a biconcave shape with a membrane consisting of a lipid bilayer with an attached cytoskeleton formed by a network of the spectrin proteins. The RBC membrane encloses a viscous cytosol (hemoglobin solution), so that RBCs possess no bulk cytoskeleton and organelles. Despite this simple structure, RBCs exhibit fascinating behavior in flow showing complex deformation and dynamics. Current simplified understanding of RBC behavior in shear flow is that they tumble or roll at low shear rates and tank-tread at high shear rates. This view has been mainly formed by a number of experiments performed on RBCs dispersed in a viscous solution, which is several times more viscous than blood plasma. However, under physiological conditions with increasing shear rates, RBCs successively tumble, roll, deform into rolling stomatocytes, and finally adopt highly-deformed poly-lobed shapes. This behavior is governed by RBC elastic and viscous properties and it is important to consider it under relevant physiological conditions.