Coarse-grained model of whole blood hemolysis and morphological analysis of erythrocyte population under non-physiological shear stress flow environment

Abstract

Erythrocyte dynamics and hemorheology exist inextricably connection. In order to further explore the population dynamics of erythrocytes in non-physiological shear stress flow and its microscopic hemolysis mechanism, this study improved the coarse-grained erythrocytes damaged model and established the hemoglobin (Hb) diffusion model based on the transport dissipative particle dynamics. The whole blood hemolysis simulation results showed that the red blood cells near the active shear side were more likely to be damaged, and most of the escaping cytoplasm was also concentrated in this side. After the destruction and relaxation of erythrocytes, the cell membrane presents a pathological state of relaxation and swelling. Moreover, we built a deep learning network for recognizing erythrocyte morphology and analyzing the erythrocyte population change rule in non-physiological shear stress flow. In this study, the clues of the blood shear-thinning effect were found from erythrocyte dynamics and coarse-grained simulation. After the shearing starts, the coin-stacked erythrocytes are depolymerized. Then, the overturned double concave erythrocytes changed into multilobe erythrocytes. When the flow shear stress gradually increases, most erythrocytes show an ellipsoidal tank-treading movement along the shear direction. Changes in erythrocyte morphology can reduce flow resistance, showing a phenomenon of the whole blood shear-thinning effect.