Blood Flows and Blood-Vessel Interactions in the Microcirculation

血的重要性怎么强调都不为过。血液在体内持续循环，具有许多重要的生物功能，包括向组织提供氧气和营养物质，并从组织中清除新陈代谢废物；循环白细胞、抗体和血小板以进行免疫和自我修复；调节身体的酸碱度和温度。这些血液功能主要在由微血管和毛细血管组成的微血管网络中完成。根据基础研究和临床观察，异常的微观血流行为经常与各种疾病和障碍有关，如心脏病、高血压、糖尿病、癌症、疟疾、贫血和动脉粥样硬化。*在微循环中，血液不能被视为连续流体，因为血细胞的大小与微血管和毛细血管相当。为了研究微观血液流动，我们将建立数值模型，将红细胞表示为悬浮在血浆中的三维柔性胶囊。血流和微血管表面的蛋白质纤维之间的动态相互作用将被仔细研究，因为它在许多生物学功能和过程中扮演着重要的角色。我们还将研究各种细胞、血流和血管参数对微血管网络中血流行为和功能的影响。*本程序将增进我们对微循环中复杂的血液流动行为的了解；因此，它可以提高我们对血液特性异常如何影响高血压、糖尿病或疟疾患者血液功能的理解。这项研究获得的信息还有助于相关的生物医学和临床应用，如用于严重出血的血液替代品的开发、生物芯片的血液分析，以及用于药物输送的微循环中血液流动的纳米颗粒运输。

The importance of blood can never be overemphasized. Continuously circulating through the body, blood performs many crucial biological functions, including supply of oxygen and nutrients to and removal of metabolic wastes from tissues; circulation of white blood cells, antibodies and platelets for immunization and self-repair; and regulation of body pH and temperature. These blood functions are mainly accomplished in the microvascular network composed of microvessels and capillaries. As observed in fundamental studies and clinical observations, abnormal microscopic blood flow behaviors are often associated with various diseases and disorders, such as heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes, cancers, malaria, anemia, and atherosclerosis.****In the microcirculation, blood cannot be treated as a continuum fluid, since the blood cells are comparable to the microvessels and capillaries in size. To study microscopic blood flows, we will develop numerical models with red blood cells represented as three-dimensional flexible capsules suspended in plasma. The dynamic interaction between blood flows and the protein fibers on microvessel surfaces will be carefully examined for its important role in many biological functions and processes. We will also investigate the effects of various cell, flow, and vessel parameters on the blood flow behaviors and functions in the microvascular network.****This program will advance our knowledge of the complex blood flow behaviors in the microcirculation; and it can therefore improve our understanding of how abnormal blood properties can affect blood functions in patients with, for example, hypertension, diabetes, or malaria. Information obtained from this research can also benefit relevant biomedical and clinical applications, such as blood substitute development for severe hemorrhage, blood analysis with biochips, and nanoparticle transport with blood flows in the microcirculation for drug delivery.**