Red Blood Cells (RBCs) when infected by Malaria Parasites have altogether a different set of structural, biochemical and biophysical properties. These changes have drastic effects on the flow of these oxygen carrying cells in our body. The change in the biophysical parameters like the stiffness of the membrane is obtained experimentally and is available in the literature. The motion of the RBCs has been observed under the infected conditions. The RBCs becoming spherocytic, develops finger-like structures on its membrane which are observed but could not be analyzed as measurement at such small scale is extremely difficult. Hence, a computational model to replicate such motion is very essential for knowing the biophysical phenomena at such small scale. To overcome this limitation, a model has been developed for RBCs in the present study to simulate their flow under different conditions with or without infection computationally. This model successfully predicts the phenomena occurring in the flow of the RBCs when infected by the malaria parasite along with basic flow of RBCs squeezing through micro-capillaries. Our model predicts experimental observations available in literature successfully in case of Malaria affected RBCs. This gives us the leverage to extend this model to other types of cells when infected by diseases like Sickle Cell Anemia. As mentioned, this would be of great help in knowing how the biophysical quantities like pressure, stresses, etc are varying locally around the membrane of the RBC for a change in parameters such as capillary dimension or degree of parasite infection.
Mathematical Modeling of Red Blood Cells Squeezing through Micro-capillaries and the Effect of Malaria Infection
Priyank GullipalliRelated information
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
, Sarit DasRelated information1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
Published Online: September 28, 2011
Abstract