A Theoretical Model for Binary Adhesion of Cells in Flows

Abstract

the adhesion of flowing cells to the vascular surface in localized sites will occur in many physiological and pathological processes, such as inflammatory reaction, tumor metastasis, and thrombus formation. This transport dependent process depends not only on the specific interactions of adhesive molecules but also on the hemodynamics of blood flow. A theoretical model for binary adhesion of flowing cells is developed here for exploring the action and interplay of the factors, which may govern this process. Our numerical results show that, the hydrodynamic interaction of cells in flows may also be a dominating factor in the adhesion of flowing cells, especially in the case of too many cells having been tethered in surface. Similar to the increasing of the cellular on-rate, the more the upstream flowing cells, the larger the tethering rate of the flowing cells against flow direction. The spatial and temporal distributions of such adhesion are sensitive to both the cellular on-rate and the interaction of the crowding cells. This model may be also used in extracting the reaction kinetic information of flowing cells from flow chamber data.