A simple model to understand the role of membrane shear elasticity and stress-free shape on the motion of red blood cells in shear flow

The analytical model presented by Keller and Skalak on the dynamics of red blood cells in shear flow described the cell as a fluid ellipsoid of fixed shape. It was extended to introduce shear elasticity of the cell membrane. We further extend the model when the cell discoid physiological shape is not a stress-free shape. We show that spheroid stress-free shapes enables fitting experimental data with values of shear elasticity typical to that found with micropipettes and optical tweezers. For moderate shear rates (when RBCs keep their discoid shape) this model enables to quantitatively determine an effective cell viscosity, that combines membrane and hemoglobin viscosities and an effective shear modulus of the membrane that combines shear modulus and stress-free shape. This model allows determining RBC mechanical parameters both in the tanktreading regime for cells suspended in a high viscosity medium, and in the tumbling regime for cells suspended in a low viscosity medium. In this regime,a transition is predicted between a rigid-like tumbling motion and a fluid-like tumbling motion above a critical shear rate, which is directly related to the mechanical parameters of the cell.