The role of platelets in blood coagulation during thrombus formation in flow

Alen Tosenberger (1) , Fazly Ataullakhanov (2) , Nikolai Bessonov (3) , Mikhail A. Panteleev (2) , Alexey Tokarev (2) , Vitaly Volpert (1)

1 DRACULA - Multi-scale modelling of cell dynamics : application to hematopoiesis
2 National Research Center for Haematology [Moscow]
3 IPME - Institute of Mechanical Engineering Problems [St. Petersburg]

Hemostatic plug covering the injury site (or a thrombus in the pathological case) is formed due to the complex interaction of aggregating platelets with biochemical reactions in plasma that participate in blood coagulation. The mechanisms that control clot growth and which lead to growth arrest are not yet completely understood. We model them with numerical simulations based on a hybrid DPD-PDE model. Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) is used to model plasma flow with platelets while fibrin concentration is described by a simplified reaction-diffusion-convection equation. The model takes into account consecutive stages of clot growth. First, a platelet is weakly connected to the clot and after some time this connection becomes stronger due to other surface receptors involved in platelet adhesion. At the same time, the fibrin network is formed inside the clot. This becomes possible because flow does not penetrate the clot and cannot wash out the reactants participating in blood coagulation. Platelets covered by the fibrin network cannot attach new platelets. Modelling shows that the growth of a hemostatic plug can stop as a result of its exterior part being removed by the flow thus exposing its non-adhesive core to the flow.

Mots clés: blood coagulation; hybrid model; DPD

Domaines: Modélisation et simulation

Alen Tosenberger, Fazly Ataullakhanov, Nikolai Bessonov, Mikhail A. Panteleev, Alexey Tokarev, et al.. The role of platelets in blood coagulation during thrombus formation in flow. 2012. ⟨hal-00729046v2⟩