Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Grant Rydquist, Mahdi Esmaily
Summary: The present work introduces an affordable computational framework to accurately study the stress and deformation of red blood cells in a macroscopic flow field. The framework treats red blood cells as one-way coupled tracers and simulates their dynamics after the flow in a postprocessing step. It achieves accurate predictions at a reasonable computational cost.
JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Toru Hyakutake, Yuya Tsutsumi, Yohei Miyoshi, Manabu Yasui, Tomoki Mizuno, Mizuki Tateno
Summary: This study investigated the partitioning characteristics of red blood cells (RBCs) within capillaries, with a specific focus on ladder structures observed near the end of the capillaries. In vitro experiments were conducted using microfluidic channels with a ladder structure model comprising six bifurcating channels that exhibited an anti-parallel flow configuration. The effects of various factors, such as the parent channel width, distance between branches, and hematocrit, on RBC partitioning in bifurcating channels were evaluated. A decrease in the parent channel width resulted in an increase in the heterogeneity in the hematocrit distribution and a bias in the fractional RBC flux. Additionally, variations in the distance between branches affected the RBC distribution, with smaller distances resulting in greater heterogeneity. The bias of the RBC distribution in the microchannel cross section had a major effect on the RBC partitioning characteristics. The influence of hematocrit variations on the RBC distribution was also investigated, with lower hematocrit values leading to a more pronounced bias in the RBC distribution. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into RBC distribution characteristics in capillary networks, contributing to our understanding of the physiological mechanisms of RBC phase separation in the microcirculatory system. These findings have implications for predicting oxygen heterogeneity in tissues and could aid in the study of diseases associated with impaired microcirculation.
Article
Acoustics
Lenin Chinchilla, Curtis Armstrong, Rym Mehri, Alessandro S. Savoia, Marianne Fenech, Emilie Franceschini
Summary: This study proposed an anisotropic formulation of the effective medium theory for blood characterization, which showed superior performance in estimating scatterer volume distribution compared to the isotropic model. The results contribute to a better interpretation of scatterer size estimates for blood characterization.
JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Yang Jun Kang
Summary: In this study, three rheological properties (viscoelasticity, RBC aggregation, and blood junction pressure) were measured by analyzing blood velocity and image intensity in a microfluidic device. The analytical formula for viscoelasticity was derived based on the discrete fluidic circuit model. RBC aggregation was obtained by reducing blood velocity and analyzing microscopic image intensity. The blood junction pressure was obtained by integrating blood velocity within an air compliance unit.
Article
Cell Biology
Brian S. Ferguson, Leslie E. Neidert, Matthew J. Rogatzki, Keith R. Lohse, L. Bruce Gladden, Heidi A. Kluess
Summary: The study found no significant difference in the release of ATP from RBCs of different densities under hypoxic and normoxic conditions, and the release of ATP was linearly correlated with the release of Hb.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-CELL PHYSIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Acoustics
Lokesh Basavarajappa, Kenneth Hoyt
Summary: A photoacoustic graphic equalization algorithm has been developed to characterize the relative size of optical absorbing aggregates. The algorithm divides the signal into different frequency bands to differentiate between different-sized optical absorbers. Results from experiments on various materials and samples show that the algorithm is able to accurately distinguish the size of optical absorbing aggregates.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Andrew Pskowski, Prosenjit Bagchi, Jeffrey D. Zahn
Summary: Research on red blood cell partitioning in microvascular bifurcations shows the existence of either regular or reverse partitioning based on the ratio of red blood cell flux to bulk fluid flowrate. Factors such as erythrocyte position, hematocrit, channel width, daughter channel flowrate ratio, and bifurcation angle significantly impact partitioning. Results demonstrate a reduction in the sigmoidal variation of erythrocyte flux ratio with increasing hematocrit in microchannels, as well as the influence of cell-cell interactions on partitioning at low Reynolds numbers.
Article
Polymer Science
Vladimir Shelukhin, Andrey Antonov
Summary: A two-velocity mathematical model is proposed for dense suspension flows through channel bifurcations, considering the pulsatile mode of injection of particles. The model's effectiveness is validated by qualitative agreement with experiment data and capturing the Zweifach-Fung effect.
Article
Hematology
William J. Wulftange, Erdem Kucukal, Yuncheng Man, Ran An, Karamoja Monchamp, Charlotte D. Sevrain, Himanshu R. Dashora, Amma T. Owusu-Ansah, Allison Bode, Anton Ilich, Jane A. Little, Nigel S. Key, Umut A. Gurkan
Summary: This study utilized a biomimetic microfluidic device to investigate the role of endothelial cell damage and red blood cell adhesion in sickle cell disease, and found that the use of antithrombin-III (ATIII) can alleviate these symptoms.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF HAEMATOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Viviana Claveria, Philippe Connes, Luca Lanotte, Celine Renoux, Philippe Joly, Romain Fort, Alexandra Gauthier, Christian Wagner, Manouk Abkarian
Summary: Red blood cells in sickle cell anemia exhibit more heterogeneous physical properties compared to healthy red blood cells, with differences in adhesiveness, rigidity, density, size, and shape. The segregation of sickle red blood cells in micron-sized channels was investigated, with findings showing that low-density cells tended to remain in the center of the channel while the densest cells segregated towards the walls. Aggregation inhibited segregation and increased the cell depleted layer thickness, potentially playing a protective role against vaso-occlusion in sickle cell anemia patients.
FRONTIERS IN PHYSICS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Aerospace
Brian J. Connolly, Eric Loth, C. Frederic Smith
Summary: This study presents a novel research on a bifurcating duct at high Reynolds number, and for the first time, unsteady, three-dimensional simulations of the flow inside an IPS were performed, showing consistent results with experiments.
JOURNAL OF AIRCRAFT
(2022)
Article
Mechanics
Mahesh S. Nagargoje, Deepak K. Mishra, Raghvendra Gupta
Summary: This research computationally studied pulsatile flow in three-dimensional bifurcating vessels, revealing the time-dependent flow distribution in differently asymmetric vessels and significant changes in secondary flow within a cardiac cycle.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Olivier Hequet, Camille Boisson, Philippe Joly, Daniela Revesz, Kamila Kebaili, Alexandra Gauthier, Celine Renoux, Severine Creppy, Elie Nader, Jean Francois Nicolas, Frederic Berard, Fabrice Cognasse, Marc Vocanson, Yves Bertrand, Philippe Connes
Summary: This study analyzed the clinical safety of using the RCE/RBC-primed procedure in low-weight children with SCA, showing a low incidence of complications with only seven transient grade 2 adverse events observed in 65 RCE sessions. The RCE/RBC-primed method achieved expected post-apheresis hematocrit and fraction of cell remaining values, improving RBC deformability and reducing the sickling tendency during deoxygenation. Both the automatic and priming procedures were found to enhance blood rheological features in children with SCA.
FRONTIERS IN MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Hematology
Evangelia Vlachodimitropoulou, Tsz Kin Lo, Clarissa Bambao, Greg Denomme, Gareth R. Seaward, Rory Windrim, Francine Tessier, Edmond Kelly, Tim Van Mieghem, Greg Ryan
Summary: Maternal intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) administration for severe red blood cell (RBC) alloimmunization can improve fetal outcomes and reduce the severity of hemolytic disease.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF HAEMATOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Analytical
Georgii V. V. Grigorev, Alexander V. V. Lebedev, Xiaohao Wang, Xiang Qian, George V. V. Maksimov, Liwei Lin
Summary: The utilization of microfluidic chips for single RBC studies has attracted great interest in recent years. It involves filtering, trapping, analyzing, and releasing single erythrocytes for various applications. This article critically reviews the current state-of-the-art and recent advances in microfluidics for single RBC analyses, including integrated sensors, trapping arrays, dielectrophoretic and agglutination/aggregation studies, clinical implications, microarrays, sorting/counting and trapping techniques, organs-on-chips, multi-organ chips, and drug discovery. The limitations and future prospects of each technology are also addressed.
Article
Biophysics
Joseph van Batenburg-Sherwood, Stavroula Balabani
Summary: Modelling blood flow in microvascular networks is challenging due to haemorheology complexity. Continuum numerical modelling framework can efficiently reproduce measured velocity with optimised rheological parameters, highlighting the importance of asymmetry in RBC velocity and concentration profiles.
BIOMECHANICS AND MODELING IN MECHANOBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Gaia Franzetti, Mirko Bonfanti, Cyrus Tanade, Chung Sim Lim, Janice Tsui, George Hamilton, Vanessa Diaz-Zuccarini, Stavroula Balabani
Summary: This study aimed to develop a computational framework to simulate the hemodynamics of peripheral arteriovenous malformations (pAVMs) and aid in clinical decision making. The results showed that the computational model successfully simulated changes in PAVMs during interventions, providing a foundation for a treatment-planning framework for AVM embolisation.
CARDIOVASCULAR ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biophysics
Gaia Franzetti, Mirko Bonfanti, Shervanthi Homer-Vanniasinkam, Vanessa Diaz-Zuccarini, Stavroula Balabani
Summary: This study presents the first experimental study of a patient-specific case of Aortic Dissection (AD) using an anatomically correct phantom combined with a state-of-the-art in vitro platform. The results accurately reproduced personalized AD hemodynamic conditions, providing clinically relevant data that can be used to evaluate surgical procedures, test medical devices, and validate numerical models.
JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICS
(2022)
Article
Mechanics
D. Pasias, L. Koutsokeras, A. Passos, G. Constantinides, S. Balabani, E. Kaliviotis
Summary: Understanding the influence of the biomechanical properties of blood on surface tension-driven microfluidic flows is crucial for the design of low-cost blood diagnostic devices. In this study, the effects of specific hemorheological factors on flows in a superhydrophilic microchannel were examined using experimental techniques. It was found that the viscosity of the sample and the deformability of erythrocytes influenced the mean velocity and velocity profiles of the blood flow.
Article
Ophthalmology
Michael Madekurozwa, Ester Reina-Torres, Darryl R. Overby, Joseph van Batenburg-Sherwood
Summary: Elevation of intraocular pressure (IOP) is the key risk factor for glaucoma, and reducing IOP is the only effective therapeutic approach. Measuring outflow facility is important for understanding the pathophysiology of glaucoma and testing treatments for lowering IOP. Mouse eyes are commonly used as a model for human aqueous humour dynamics. The ex vivo preparation and postmortem in situ model have different advantages in studying glaucoma. This study investigates the postmortem in situ model and its characteristics compared to the ex vivo model.
EXPERIMENTAL EYE RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Hematology
Andreas Passos, Marinos Louka, Charalambos Vryonidis, Antonis Inglezakis, Constantinos Loizou, Elena Nikiphorou, Savvas Psarelis, Efstathios Kaliviotis
Summary: The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) test is widely used in clinical practice. A new low cost micro-ESR technique has been developed, which reduces measurement time and blood sample volume. The evaluation shows a high correlation with commercial instruments, indicating its feasibility.
CLINICAL HEMORHEOLOGY AND MICROCIRCULATION
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Antonios Stathoulopoulos, Andreas Passos, Stavroula Balabani
Summary: Red blood cell deformability plays an important role in haemorheology and is impaired in many pathologies. This study examines the effect of impaired deformability on velocity and haematocrit distributions in microscale RBC flows. The results show that deformability does not significantly affect velocity distributions, but does have an impact on the distribution of hardened cells.
MEDICAL ENGINEERING & PHYSICS
(2022)
Review
Multidisciplinary Sciences
T. Boulafentis, T. Lacassagne, N. Cagney, S. Balabani
Summary: Since Taylor's seminal work in 1923, Taylor-Couette flow has been widely studied to understand hydrodynamic instabilities and bifurcation phenomena. In recent years, there has been growing interest in studying TC flows with complex, viscoelastic fluids. The transitions to elastic turbulence or elasto-inertial turbulence have revealed fascinating dynamics and flow states. However, the nature of these transitions and the relationship between elastic turbulence and elasto-inertial turbulence are not fully understood.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY A-MATHEMATICAL PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jeffrey O'Callaghan, Conor Delaney, Merissa O'Connor, Joseph van Batenburg-Sherwood, Martin Schicht, Elke Luetjen-Drecoll, Natalie Hudson, Sorcha Ni Dhubhghaill, Peter Humphries, Chris Stanley, Annahita Keravala, Thomas Chalberg, Matthew S. Lawrence, Matthew Campbell
Summary: Approximately 80 million people globally are affected by glaucoma, with a projected increase to over 110 million by 2040. Patient compliance issues and treatment resistance pose risks of permanent vision loss. Gene therapy-based methods, specifically AAV9-mediated expression of MMP-3, show promise in increasing outflow and can be safely tested in clinical trials.
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Mengqi Li, Theofilos Boulafentis, Antonios Stathoulopoulos, Zhaomiao Liu, Stavroula Balabani
Summary: The role of elasticity on the flow topology inside viscoelastic (Boger) droplets moving in a rectangular micro-channel is experimentally examined using micro Particle Image Velocimetry (μPIV). The results show that varying the Wi number alters the flow topology inside the droplets, and when the Wi and elastic number increase, a new flow structure is observed characterized by two recirculating regions. These findings highlight the importance of elasticity in microdroplet flows and the potential of tuning elasticity for microfluidic applications.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biophysics
Chotirawee Chatpattanasiri, Gaia Franzetti, Mirko Bonfanti, Vanessa Diaz-Zuccarini, Stavroula Balabani
Summary: This study focuses on the use of reduced order models (ROMs) to reconstruct velocity fields in a patient-specific dissected aorta, comparing ROMs obtained from robust and traditional proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). Results show that robust POD enhances the quality of the data and fewer modes are needed to capture the kinetic energy of the flow. The study also finds that the coherent structures of the aortic dissection flow can be described by a small number of POD modes, simplifying the problem.
JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Melissa Hexter, Joseph van Batenburg-Sherwood, Parastoo Hashemi
Summary: This study addresses the common issues of traditional FIA cells in FSCV by creating a robust plug-and-play flow cell, improving the accuracy and stability of FSCV calibration.
ACS MEASUREMENT SCIENCE AU
(2023)
Article
Ophthalmology
Colleen M. McDowell, Krishnakumar Kizhatil, Michael H. Elliott, Darryl R. Overby, Joseph Van Batenburg-Sherwood, J. Cameron Millar, Markus H. Kuehn, Gulab Zode, Ted S. Acott, Michael G. Anderson, Sanjoy K. Bhattacharya, Jacques A. Bertrand, Terete Borras, Diane E. Bovenkamp, Lin Cheng, John Danias, Michael Lucio De Ieso, Yiqin Du, Jennifer A. Faralli, Rudolf Fuchshofer, Preethi S. Ganapathy, Haiyan Gong, Samuel Herberg, Humberto Hernandez, Peter Humphries, Simon W. M. John, Paul L. Kaufman, Kate E. Keller, Mary J. Kelley, Ruth A. Kelly, David Krizaj, Ajay Kumar, Brian C. Leonard, Raquel L. Lieberman, Paloma Liton, Yutao Liu, Katy C. Liu, Navita N. Lopez, Weiming Mao, Timur Mavlyutov, Fiona McDonnell, Gillian J. McLellan, Philip Mzyk, Andrews Nartey, Louis R. Pasquale, Gaurang C. Patel, Padmanabhan P. Pattabiraman, Donna M. Peters, Vijaykrishna Raghunathan, Ponugoti Vasantha Rao, Naga Rayana, Urmimala Raychaudhuri, Ester Reina-Torres, Ruiyi Ren, Douglas Rhee, Uttio Roy Chowdhury, John R. Samples, E. Griffen Samples, Najam Sharif, Joel S. Schuman, Val C. Sheffield, Cooper H. Stevenson, Avinash Soundararajan, Preeti Subramanian, Chenna Kesavulu Sugali, Yang Sun, Carol B. Toris, Karen Y. Torrejon, Amir Vahabikashi, Janice A. Vranka, Ting Wang, Colin E. Willoughby, Chen Xin, Hongmin Yun, Hao F. Zhang, Michael P. Fautsch, Ernst R. Tamm, Abbot F. Clark, C. Ross Ethier, W. Daniel Stamer
Summary: This article highlights the importance of using mice as a valuable model system for studying conventional outflow resistance and intraocular pressure. It also outlines the minimum acceptable standards for developing, characterizing, and utilizing mouse models of open-angle ocular hypertension. These standards are expected to enhance scientific rigor and replicability of research findings.
INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Ophthalmology
Jessica Jasien, A. Thomas Read, Joseph Van Batenburg-Sherwood, Kristin M. Perkumas, C. Ross Ethier, W. Daniel Stamer, Brian C. Samuels
Summary: The tree shrew, with its human-like optic nerve head anatomy and stable aqueous outflow facility, serves as a valuable animal model for glaucoma and pharmacology research, providing advantages over current rodent and nonhuman primate models used in translational research.
INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE
(2022)
