CFD study of mesenchymal stem cells in fluid flow

Several biological effects have been reported for mechanical forces on individual cells including: signal transduction, gene expression, growth, and differentiation. In thispaper, a novel model for studying the cell behavior under the effect of stresses is developed. A well-defined fluid flow passingover a single cell fixed inside a microchannel is considered in thismodel. By multi-scale modeling and fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method (which are strong tools in the field of cellmechanics)a single cell inside a microchannel (using its specific mechanical properties) have been simulated. For this purpose, atfirst, a 3D model of mesenchymal stem cells is created inafinite element software; by extracting the dimensions include surfacearea and volume of the nucleus and plasma membrane from literature. Then, the mechanical properties (Young’s modulus) ofthe cell are determined using an atomic force microscopy (AFM)in Hetrz model. The results of simulation results using computational fluid dynamics, arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerianmethod and adaptive mesh procedure, beside providing a framework for characterizing cytoskeletal structure affecting thecellular responses, can substantially enrich studies in the field of cellular biomechanics. Comparison between the two cellular model have shown that the presence of cellular components widely affect its response to external mechanical forces.

CFD study of mesenchymal stem cells in fluid flow Keywords:

component , Cell-Scale Simulation , Computational Fluid Dynamics , Cellular Biomechanics , Fluid Structure Interaction