Red blood cell clustering in Poiseuille microcapillary flow

Abstract

Red blood cells (RBC) flowing in microcapillaries tend to associate into clusters, i.e., small trains of cells separated from each other by a distance comparable to cell size. This process is usually attributed to slower RBCs acting to create a sequence of trailing cells. Here, based on the first systematic investigation of collective RBC flow behavior in microcapillaries in vitro by high-speed video microscopy and numerical simulations, we show that RBC size polydispersity within the physiological range does not affect cluster stability. Lower applied pressure drops and longer residence times favor larger RBC clusters. A limiting cluster length, depending on the number of cells in a cluster, is found by increasing the applied pressure drop. The insight on the mechanism of RBC clustering provided by this work can be applied to further our understanding of RBC aggregability, which is a key parameter implicated in clotting and thrombus formation.