Multiscale Modeling of Flow Induced Thrombogenicity With Dissipative Particle Dynamics and Molecular Dynamics

摘要

Thrombogenicity in cardiovascular devices and in cardiovascular pathologies is associated with shear-induced activation of platelets resulting from pathological flow patterns generated by them. Flow induced platelet activation process poses a major modeling challenge as it covers disparate spatiotemporal scales, from flow scales to cellular and subcellular scales. This challenge can be resolved by a multiscale approach that couples the macroscopic effects of flow and stresses to a microscopic mechanotransduction platelet model. We developed a molecular dynamics (MD) based fine-grained nano-to-micro platelet multiscale model that depicts resting platelets and simulates their characteristic shear stress-exposure time activation and the ensuing pseudopodia formation, and compared it to in vitro measurements of activated platelet morphological changes after exposure to prescribed flow-induced shear stresses, such as the core axis and pseudopodia formation width and lengths.