Anti-margination of microparticles and platelets in the vicinity of branching vessels

Abstract

We investigate the margination of microparticles/platelets in blood flow through complex geometries typical for in vivo vessel networks: a vessel confluence and a bifurcation. Using 3D Lattice-Boltzmann simulations, we confirm that behind the confluence of two vessels a cell-free layer devoid of red blood cells develops in the channel center. Despite its small size of roughly one micrometer, this central cell-free layer persists for up to 100 $\mu$m after the confluence. Most importantly, we show from simulations that this layer also contains a significant amount of microparticles/platelets and validate this result by in vivo microscopy in mouce venules. At bifurcations, however, a similar effect does not appear and margination is largely unaffected by the geometry. This anti-margination towards the vessel center after a confluence may explain in vivo observations by Woldhuis et al. [Am. J. Physiol. 262, H1217 (1992)] where platelet concentrations near the vessel wall are seen to be much higher on the arteriolar side (containing bifurcations) than on the venular side (containing confluences) of the vascular system.

References in corpus (8)

• Lattice Boltzmann simulations of soft matter systems
• Mechanism of margination in confined flows of blood and other multicomponent suspensions
• Inversion of hematocrit partition at microfluidic bifurcations
• Long-lived anomalous thermal diffusion induced by elastic cell membranes on nearby particles
• Effect of tube diameter and capillary number on platelet margination and near-wall dynamics
• Clustering of microscopic particles in constricted blood flow
• A micro-scale simulation of red blood cell passage through symmetric and asymmetric bifurcated vessels
• Margination regimes and drainage transition in confined multicomponent suspensions

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Immersed-finite-element method for deformable particle suspensions in viscous and viscoelastic media
• Computational modeling of active deformable membranes embedded in 3D flows
• A unified analysis of nano-to-microscale particle dispersion in tubular blood flow
• Heterogeneous partition of cellular blood-borne nanoparticles through microvascular bifurcations
• Lingering Dynamics in Microvascular Blood Flow
• The Volume of Healthy Red Blood Cells is Optimal for Advective Oxygen Transport in Arterioles