In this paper, we investigate computationally the oscillatory tank-treading motion of healthy swollen human erythrocytes (owing to lower, than physiological, plasma osmolarity) in shear flows with capillary number Ca = O(1) and small to moderate viscosity ratios 0.01 ≤ λ ≤ 2.75. Swollen cells show similar shear flow dynamics with normal cells but with significantly higher inclination and tank-treading speed owing to the higher cell thickness. For a given viscosity ratio, as the flow rate increases, the steady-state erythrocyte length L (in the shear plane) increases logarithmically while its depth W (normal to the shear plane) decreases logarithmically; increase of the viscosity ratio results in lower cell deformation. The erythrocyte width S, which exists in the shear plane, is practically invariant in time, flow rate and viscosity ratio, and corresponds to a real cell thickness of about 2.5 μm at physiological osmolarity (300 mO) and 3.4 μm at an osmolarity of 217 mO. The erythrocyte inclination decreases as the flow rate increases or as the surrounding fluid viscosity decreases, owing to the increased inner rotational flow which tends to align the cell toward the flow direction. The ektacytometry deformation of swollen cells increases logarithmically with the shear stress but with a slower slope than that for normal cells owing mainly to the higher orientation of the more swollen cells. As the cell swelling increases, the tank-treading period decreases owing to the higher thickness of the actual cell which overcomes the opposite action of the reduced shape-memory effects (i.e. the more spherical-like erythrocyte’s reference shape of shearing resistance). The local-area incompressibility tensions from the lipid bilayer increase with the cell swelling and cause a higher cytoskeleton prestress; this increased prestress results in smaller, but still measurable, local-area changes on the spectrin skeleton of the more swollen erythrocytes. Our work provides insight on the effects of clinical syndromes and biophysical processes associated with lowered plasma osmolarity (and thus higher cell swelling) such as inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion and diuretic therapy.
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