A unified biochemical and continuum mechanical red blood cell membrane bilayer--couple model.

We study the shapes and biochemical characteristics of human red blood cells using a unified biochemical and continuum mechanical model. In particular, we model the crenated, echinocytic shapes and show how they may shift due to changes in the pH and various amphipaths affecting the osmotic pressure by also utilizing pressure as an independent variable. In contrast to earlier works which advocate that biochemical factors may be attributable to mechanical control parameters, cytoskeletal elastic constants and effective relaxed bilayer area difference of outer plasma membrane and inner protein-based membrane skeleton, our unified model agrees well with Band 3 diffusion experimental root mean square distance data.