Flow around cells adhered to a microvessel wall. I. Fluid stresses and forces acting on the cells.

To evaluate the fluid forces acting on cells adhered to a microvessel wall, we numerically studied the flow field around adherent cells and the distribution of the stresses on their surfaces. For simplicity, the cells were modeled as rigid particles attached to a wall of a circular cylindrical tube regularly in the flow direction, in a row or two rows. It was found that not the detailed shape of the model cells but their height from the vessel wall is a key determinant of the fluid forces and torque acting on them. In both arrangements of one row and two rows, the axial spacing between neighboring adherent cells significantly affects the distributions of the stresses on them, which results in drastic variations of the fluid forces with the axial spacing and the relative positions with respect to their neighboring cells. The drag force acting on an adherent cell in the vessel was evaluated to be larger than the value in the 2D chamber flow at the same wall shear stress, mainly due to much larger variations of the pressure distribution on the cell surface in the vessel flow.