The Volume of Healthy Red Blood Cells is Optimal for Advective Oxygen Transport in Arterioles

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Amoudruz, Lucas, Economides, Athena, Koumoutsakos, Petros
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Amoudruz, Lucas
Economides, Athena
Koumoutsakos, Petros
author_facet Amoudruz, Lucas
Economides, Athena
Koumoutsakos, Petros
contents Red blood cells (RBCs) are vital for transporting oxygen from the lungs to the body's tissues through the intricate circulatory system. They achieve this by binding and releasing oxygen molecules to the abundant hemoglobin within their cytosol. The volume of RBCs affects the amount of oxygen they can carry, yet whether this volume is optimal for transporting oxygen through the circulatory system remains an open question. This study explores, through high-fidelity numerical simulations, the impact of RBC volume on advectve oxygen transport efficiency through arterioles which form the area of greatest flow resistance in the circulatory system. The results show that, strikingly, RBCs with volumes similar to those found in vivo are most efficient to transport oxygen through arterioles. The flow resistance is related to the cell-free layer thickness, which is influenced by the shape and the motion of the RBCs: at low volumes RBCs deform and fold while at high volumes RBCs collide and follow more diffuse trajectories. In contrast, RBCs with a healthy volume maximize the cell-free layer thickness, resulting in a more efficient advectve transport of oxygen.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_02197
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Volume of Healthy Red Blood Cells is Optimal for Advective Oxygen Transport in Arterioles
Amoudruz, Lucas
Economides, Athena
Koumoutsakos, Petros
Biological Physics
Soft Condensed Matter
Red blood cells (RBCs) are vital for transporting oxygen from the lungs to the body's tissues through the intricate circulatory system. They achieve this by binding and releasing oxygen molecules to the abundant hemoglobin within their cytosol. The volume of RBCs affects the amount of oxygen they can carry, yet whether this volume is optimal for transporting oxygen through the circulatory system remains an open question. This study explores, through high-fidelity numerical simulations, the impact of RBC volume on advectve oxygen transport efficiency through arterioles which form the area of greatest flow resistance in the circulatory system. The results show that, strikingly, RBCs with volumes similar to those found in vivo are most efficient to transport oxygen through arterioles. The flow resistance is related to the cell-free layer thickness, which is influenced by the shape and the motion of the RBCs: at low volumes RBCs deform and fold while at high volumes RBCs collide and follow more diffuse trajectories. In contrast, RBCs with a healthy volume maximize the cell-free layer thickness, resulting in a more efficient advectve transport of oxygen.
title The Volume of Healthy Red Blood Cells is Optimal for Advective Oxygen Transport in Arterioles
topic Biological Physics
Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02197