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Platelet Adhesive Dynamics. Part I: Characterization of Platelet Hydrodynamic Collisions and Wall Effects

Departments of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to Michael R. King, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, 205 Weill Hall, Ithaca NY, 14853. Tel.: 607-255-1003; Fax: 607-255-7330; E-mail: mrk93{at}cornell.edu.

Abnormally high shear stresses encountered in vivo induce spontaneous activation of blood platelets and formation of aggregates, even in the absence of vascular injury. A three-dimensional multiscale computational model—platelet adhesive dynamics—is developed and applied in Part I and Part II articles to elucidate key biophysical aspects of GPIb-von-Willebrand-factor-mediated interplatelet binding that characterizes the onset of shear-induced platelet aggregation. In this article, the hydrodynamic effects of the oblate spheroidal shape of platelets and proximity of a plane wall on the nature of cell-cell collisions are systematically investigated. Physical quantities characterizing the adhesion probabilities between colliding platelet surfaces for the entire range of near-wall encounters between two platelets are obtained for application in platelet adhesive dynamics simulations of platelet aggregation explored in a companion article. The technique for matching simulation predictions of interplatelet binding efficiency to experimentally determined efficiencies is also described. Platelet collision behavior is found to be strikingly different from that of spheres, both close to and far from a bounding wall. Our results convey the significant effects that particle shape and presence of a bounding wall have on the particle trajectories and collision mechanisms, collision characteristics such as collision time and contact area, and collision frequency.