A numerical simulation of the deformation of an erythrocyte

Abstract

It has been shown that a red cell (erythrocyte) can transform itself into a variety of shapes under various conditions. However, there is no theoretical model which can explain it well. Hence we developed a mathematical model of a red cell which can deform into any shape while keeping the elastic energy of the membrane minimum, and simulated the shape change which occurred when the volume of a red cell in a spherical shape was reduced gradually. It was found that the process of the shape change of the cell from a sphere to a biconcave disc which is similar to that of a normal red cell can be simulated fairly well by this model.