Vascular journey and adhesion mechanics of micro-sized carriers in narrow capillaries.

In this work a Lattice Boltzmann-Immersed Boundary method is used for predicting the dynamics of rigid and deformable adhesive micro-carriers (1 μm) navigating a capillary by the size of 10 μm with 20% hematocrit. Red cells and particles are modeled as a collection of mass-spring elements responding to a bending potential, an elastic potential and total enclosed area conservation constraint. Furthermore, particle surfaces are uniformly decorated with adhesive molecules (ligands) interacting with receptors disposed on the walls. Particle adhesion is modeled as a short-range ligad-receptor interaction and in term of formation and destruction probability functions that discriminate whether a chemical bond can be formed or destroyed. If a bond is established an attractive elastic force is activated. Particle transport and adhesion are characterized in terms of their ability to reach the capillary peripheries (margination rate) and firmly adhere the vasculature. This analysis is carried out systematically by varying particles' and cells' releasing positions and stiffness (Ca = 0 and 10

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Declaration of competing interest The author declares no competing interests.