A constitutive model for developing blood clots with various compositions and their nonlinear viscoelastic behavior

Area of Science:

• Biophysics
• Materials Science
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Blood clot mechanical properties are crucial for function and disease, but complex composition hinders prediction.
• Understanding the relationship between clot components and mechanical behavior is essential for disease modeling.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a constitutive model for blood clot viscoelastic behavior.
• To investigate the influence of red blood cells, platelets, and fibrin on clot mechanics.
• To enable prediction of clot properties based on composition.

Main Methods:

• Forming clots from whole blood, platelet-rich plasma, and platelet-poor plasma.
• Conducting rheological experiments to analyze clot formation and mature clot behavior.
• Employing a generalized Maxwell model to capture nonlinear viscoelasticity.

Main Results:

• The generalized Maxwell model accurately describes the viscoelastic behavior of blood clots.
• Model parameters can be adjusted to represent clots of different compositions (varying RBCs, platelets, fibrin).
• Sensitivity analysis confirmed the model's ability to predict the impact of parameter variations.

Conclusions:

• The developed constitutive model effectively describes blood clot viscoelasticity.
• The model's flexibility allows for simulating clots with diverse compositions.
• This model offers a simplified yet powerful tool for numerical simulations of blood clots and similar materials.