EXTRACELLULAR FLOW PATTERNS SURROUNDING A BREAST CANCER CELL DURING TRANSPORT IN A MICROCHANNEL

Abstract

We performed the transport of a breast cancer cell (MB231-TGFb) in a microvessel using high-resolution simulations. Using open-source imaging software Slicer3D and Meshmixer, the 3D surface mesh forming the cell membrane was reconstructed from confocal microscopic images. The Dissipative Particle Dynamics method is used to model the cell membrane. The extracellular fluid flow is modeled with the Immersed Boundary Method to solve the governing equations of the blood plasma. The unsteady flow is applied at the inlet of the microchannel with an oscillatory pattern. Our results showed that the extracellular flow patterns are highly dependent on the waveform profile. The oscillatory flow showed the creation of vortices that influence the cellular deformations in the microchannel. These results could have implications on the destination of the cancer cells during transport in physiological flows.