Fibrin gel formation in a shear flow.

Blood clots are made up of platelets and fibrin gel, and the relative amount of fibrin is strongly influenced by the shear rate. In order to explore this phenomenon, this paper presents a model of fibrin gel formation over the surface of an injured blood vessel in a shear flow. A condition for gelation including source and sink terms of polymer is derived. A simplified model of coagulation, involving activation and inhibition of the enzyme thrombin and thrombin-mediated production of fibrin monomer, is combined with the model of gelation to explore how the shear rate and other parameters control the formation of fibrin gel. The results show that the thrombin inhibition rate, the gel permeability and the shear rate are key parameters in regulating the height of the fibrin gel.