Statistical mechanics of red blood cell aggregation: The distribution of rouleaux in thermal equilibrium |
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| Authors: | Frederik W. Wiegel Alan S. Perelson |
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| Affiliation: | (1) Department of Applied Physics, Twente University of Technology, P.O. Box 217, Enschede, The Netherlands;(2) Theoretical Division, University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 87545 Los Alamos, New Mexico |
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| Abstract: | When placed in suspension red blood cells adhere face-to-face and form long, cylindrical, and sometimes branched structures called rouleaux. We use methods developed in statistical mechanics to compute various statistical properties describing the size and shape of rouleaux in thermodynamic equilibrium. This leads to analytical expressions for (1) the average number of rouleaux consisting ofn cells and havingm branch points; (2) the average number of cells per rouleau; (3) the average number of branch points per rouleau; and (4) the number of rouleaux withn cells in a system containing a total ofN cells. We also derive asymptotic formulas that simplify these analytic expressions, and present numerical comparisons of the exact and asymptotic results. |
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| Keywords: | Aggregation red blood cells rouleaux statistical mechanics rooted trees |
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