ABSTRACT
Investigation of the flowing behaviours of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) under the blood flow is of fundamental importance for understanding haematogenous metastasis. In this study, the motion of a CTC at low flow rates in microvessels were simulated by dissipative particle dynamics combined with a spring-based network model to characterise cell deformation. The effects of vessel curvature, cell deformability and the presence of RBCs on the motion of an initially adherent tumour cell were investigated. The results suggested that at low Reynolds number, the viscous force plays a dominant role and the curved vessel would initiate the formation of more simultaneous bonds. And, the shear force acted on the softer tumour cell would induce large contact area and further stimulate the formation of more ligand–receptor bond numbers. Moreover, to investigate the non-Newtonian nature of the blood flow on tumour cell motion, the blood was regarded as a suspension of RBCs. With the presence of RBC suspensions, the collision between the tumour cell and RBCs increases the drag force and promotes the disassociation of the CTC from the vessel wall.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11902188,11872283), Shanghai Sailing Program (19YF1417400). The grants are gratefully acknowledged.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).