Flow-Induced Transitions of Red Blood Cell Shapes under Shear

Johannes Mauer (1) , Simon Mendez (2) , Luca Lanotte (3) , Franck Nicoud (2) , Manouk Abkarian (4) , Gerhard Gompper (1) , Dmitry A Fedosov (1)

1 ICS - Institute of Complex Systems
2 IMAG - Institut Montpelliérain Alexander Grothendieck
3 STLO - Science et Technologie du Lait et de l'Oeuf
4 CBS - Centre de Biochimie Structurale [Montpellier]

A recent study of red blood cells (RBCs) in shear flow [Lanotte et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113, 13289 (2016)] has demonstrated that RBCs first tumble, then roll, transit to a rolling and tumbling stomatocyte, and finally attain polylobed shapes with increasing shear rate, when the viscosity contrast between cytosol and blood plasma is large enough. Using two different simulation techniques, we construct a state diagram of RBC shapes and dynamics in shear flow as a function of shear rate and viscosity contrast, which is also supported by microfluidic experiments. Furthermore, we illustrate the importance of RBC shear elasticity for its dynamics in flow and show that two different kinds of membrane buckling trigger the transition between subsequent RBC states.

Domaines: Modélisation et simulation

Johannes Mauer, Simon Mendez, Luca Lanotte, Franck Nicoud, Manouk Abkarian, et al.. Flow-Induced Transitions of Red Blood Cell Shapes under Shear. Physical Review Letters, 2018, 121 (11), ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.118103⟩. ⟨hal-01898170⟩