A microvillus based approach to model cell rolling

Cell rolling is a physiological phenomenon, which allows leukocytes to attach to activated vascular endothelium and reach sites of inflammation. A novel approach to model cell rolling is presented in this thesis. The model incorporates all the aspects known to be important to rolling in a semi-analytical framework making it computationally efficient. Bond kinetics have been used to define microvillus attachment probability which is in turn used to find out the net force on the cell. Deformability is also taken into account by an empirical relation which allows shear modulation of cell-surface contact area. The model showed excellent agreement with experimental results over a wide range of shear stresses. Using the model, the effects of cell deformability and microvillus structure have been studied and its implications discussed. The model was also used to predict rolling of microspheres, which showed reasonable agreement with experiments. Finally, the contribution of different features towards stabilization of rolling was elucidated by simulating different hypothetical cases with contributions from different cellular features.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Bose, Suman

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Rohit N. Karnik.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54881

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/54881