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Biomicrofluidics / Volume 5 / Issue 4 / REGULAR ARTICLES

Biomicrofluidics 5, 044120 (2011); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3672689 (15 pages)

Asymmetry of red blood cell motions in a microchannel with a diverging and converging bifurcation

Vladimir Leble1, Rui Lima1,2, Ricardo Dias1,2, Carla Fernandes1, Takuji Ishikawa3, Yohsuke Imai3, and Takami Yamaguchi4

1ESTiG/IPB, Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Bragança, Portugal
2CEFT, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Porto, Portugal
3Department of Bioengineering and Robotics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
4Department of Biomedical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

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(Received 1 August 2011; accepted 6 December 2011; published online 23 December 2011)

In microcirculation, red blood cells (RBCs) flowing through bifurcations may deform considerably due to combination of different phenomena that happen at the micro-scale level, such as: attraction effect, high shear, and extensional stress, all of which may influence the rheological properties and flow behavior of blood. Thus, it is important to investigate in detail the behavior of blood flow occurring at both bifurcations and confluences. In the present paper, by using a micro-PTV system, we investigated the variations of velocity profiles of two working fluids flowing through diverging and converging bifurcations, human red blood cells suspended in dextran 40 with about 14% of hematocrit level (14 Hct) and pure water seeded with fluorescent trace particles. All the measurements were performed in the center plane of rectangular microchannels using a constant flow rate of about 3.0 × 10−12 m3/s. Moreover, the experimental data was compared with numerical results obtained for Newtonian incompressible fluid. The behavior of RBCs was asymmetric at the divergent and convergent side of the geometry, whereas the velocities of tracer particles suspended in pure water were symmetric and well described by numerical simulation. The formation of a red cell-depleted zone immediately downstream of the apex of the converging bifurcation was observed and its effect on velocity profiles of RBCs flow has been investigated. Conversely, a cell-depleted region was not formed around the apex of the diverging bifurcation and as a result the adhesion of RBCs to the wall surface was enhanced in this region.

© 2011 American Institute of Physics

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
    1. Microchannel geometry
    2. Experimental set-up and working fluids
    3. Image analysis
  3. NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS
  4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
    1. Diverging bifurcation
    2. Converging bifurcation (confluence)
    3. Comparison
  5. CONCLUSIONS

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

adhesion, bifurcation, blood flow measurement, cellular transport, fluorescence, haemorheology, microchannel flow, numerical analysis

PACS

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3672689

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

1932-1058 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

For access to fully linked references, you need to log in.
    P. C. Sousa, F. T. Pinho, M. S. N. Oliveira, and M. Alves, Biomicrofluidics 5, 014108 (2011)BIOMGB000005000001014108000001.

    T. Nakano, T. Itoyama, K. Yoshida, Y. Sawada, S. Ikeda, T. Fukuda, T. Matsuda, M. Negoro, and F. Arai, Biomicrofluidics 4, 046505 (2010)BIOMGB000004000004046505000001.

    L. T. Chau, B. E. Rolfe, and J. J. Cooper-White, Biomicrofluidics 5, 034115 (2011)BIOMGB000005000003034115000001.


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