A Fluid-Cell Interaction and Adhesion Algorithm for Tissue Coating of Cardiovascular Implants

In this manuscript we develop a fluid-cell interaction and adhesion algorithm applied to modeling the cell coating of artificial surfaces of cardiovascular implants for improved biocompatibility. The fluid-cell interaction and adhesion algorithm proposed in this manuscript is a multi-scale model that captures the process of cell adhesion which occurs at a scale of a few nano meters, and couples it with fluid-cell interaction which occurs at a scale of a few hundred microns. Cells are assumed rigid and neutrally buoyant. Cell adhesion is modeled using a a kinetics-based dynamic adhesion algorithm. Fluid-cell interaction is modeled using the fictitious domain method with distributed Lagrange multipliers. The coupling between the two is achieved through a time-splitting scheme. Novel results regarding the influence of certain fluid dynamics parameters and adhesion parameters on the generation of a stable and strong tissue coating of artificial surfaces are presented. The modular nature of this algorithm makes it easily applicable to a large class of problems involving the processes of cell adhesion and fluid-cell interaction. Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Rd., Houston TX 77204-3008, USA [email protected]. Research supported in part by the NSF and NIH(NIGMS) under grant DMS-0443826, and by the Texas Higher Education Board under grant ARP-003652-0051-2006 Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Rd., Houston TX 77204-3008, USA. Research supported in part by the NSF and NIH(NIGMS) under grant DMS-0443826, by the NSF under grant DMS 0209066 and by the University of Houston GEAR grant 2007-2008. Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Rd., Houston TX 77204-3008, USA ([email protected]). Research supported in part by the NSF under grants DMS-0337355 and DMS-0806941, by the NSF and NIH(NIGMS) under grant DMS-0443826, by the Texas Higher Education Board under grant ARP-003652-0051-2006 and by the University of Houston GEAR grant 2007-2008. Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Rd., Houston TX 77204-3008, USA. Research supported in part by the NSF and NIH(NIGMS) grant DMS-0443826 and by the NSF under grant DMS-0412267. University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, and Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, TX 77030, USA. Research supported in part by the NSF and NIH(NIGMS) under grant DMS-0443826 and by the Roderick Duncan MacDonald Foundation at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital.