Migration of a red blood cell in a permeable microvessel

Abstract

One of the important features of the microvessels is with permeable vessels. The hyperpermeablility is especially prounounced due to the fast grow of the microvessel in the tumor tissues. Flow field induced by leakage often presents a different figure compared to that of the health vessel. Non-uniform velocity and pressure distribution are found in the simulation by using Lattice Boltzmann Method combined with Starling law. This non-uniform flow field has significant influence on the mass transport in permeable mocrovessel, such as the motion of red blood cell. Using 2D spring network model to express the red blood cell and immersed boundary method to implement the coupling of fluid and structure, numerical simulations were carried out to study the migration of a red blood cell in a straight permeable channel. The results show that the staying time of red blood cell in the leakage region increases with the intensity of leakage. We also found that the leakage can weaken the lateral migration of the red blood cell from the wall to the channel center, and even tune the migration towards the wall when the leakage is reasonably strong.