TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lanotte, Luca
AU  - Mauer, Johannes
AU  - Mendez, Simon
AU  - Fedosov, Dmitry A.
AU  - Fromental, Jean-Marc
AU  - Claveria, Viviana
AU  - Nicoud, Franck
AU  - Gompper, Gerhard
AU  - Abkarian, Manouk
TI  - Red cells' dynamic morphologies govern blood shear thinning under microcirculatory flow conditions
JO  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
VL  - 113
IS  - 47
SN  - 1091-6490
CY  - Washington, DC
PB  - National Acad. of Sciences
M1  - FZJ-2016-06677
SP  - 13289 - 13294
PY  - 2016
AB  - Blood viscosity decreases with shear stress, a property essential for an efficient perfusion of the vascular tree. Shear thinning is intimately related to the dynamics and mutual interactions of RBCs, the major component of blood. Because of the lack of knowledge about the behavior of RBCs under physiological conditions, the link between RBC dynamics and blood rheology remains unsettled. We performed experiments and simulations in microcirculatory flow conditions of viscosity, shear rates, and volume fractions, and our study reveals rich RBC dynamics that govern shear thinning. In contrast to the current paradigm, which assumes that RBCs align steadily around the flow direction while their membranes and cytoplasm circulate, we show that RBCs successively tumble, roll, deform into rolling stomatocytes, and, finally, adopt highly deformed polylobed shapes for increasing shear stresses, even for semidilute volume fractions of the microcirculation. Our results suggest that any pathological change in plasma composition, RBC cytosol viscosity, or membrane mechanical properties will affect the onset of these morphological transitions and should play a central role in pathological blood rheology and flow behavior. 
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000388830700047
C6  - pmid:27834220
DO  - DOI:10.1073/pnas.1608074113
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/824053
ER  -