Hemodynamics in the microcirculation and in microfluidics

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Fluid Dynamics
• Cellular Biology

Background:

• Microcirculation hemodynamics is crucial for hemorheology and circulatory diseases.
• Advancements in micro/nano-scale techniques are expanding hemodynamics research.
• Understanding blood flow at micro-scales is vital for diagnosing and treating diseases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review recent computational and experimental studies of blood flow in microcirculation and microfluidics.
• To highlight advancements in red blood cell dynamics and cell adhesion modeling.
• To discuss microfluidic cell separation techniques and their biomedical applications.

Main Methods:

• Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for red blood cell (RBC) dynamics and white blood cell (WBC), platelet, and malaria-infected RBC adhesion.
• Experimental techniques including optical microscopy, particle image velocimetry (PIV), and particle tracking velocimetry (PTV).
• Microfluidic device development for cell separation and analysis.

Main Results:

• Detailed review of RBC dynamics from single-cell to multi-cellular flows.
• Overview of computational models for cell adhesion to vascular walls.
• Demonstration of microfluidic cell separation for diagnostic applications (e.g., cancer detection).

Conclusions:

• Microfluidics and advanced computational methods offer powerful tools for studying microcirculation hemodynamics.
• Cell adhesion models are essential for understanding cellular functions in vascular environments.
• Microfluidic cell separation holds significant promise for future biomedical diagnostics and research.