Mechanics of Human Red Blood Cell at the Onset and Progression Stages of Plasmodium Falciparum Malaria Parasite

Abstract

This thesis aims to get insight into the mechanics of human red blood cell in healthy case and during the progression of Plasmodium Falciparum malaria parasite. As the computed results in previous studies using previous models in both cases did not agree with the in-vitro stretching tests, Skalak’s hyperelastic constitutive model is used. This model achieved a remarkable agreement with stretching tests in the healthy case. During infection the cell membrane is patched with one infected patch with high shear modulus whereas the remaining membrane segment is represented with a lower shear modulus. The infection progression is represented by increasing the patch diameter. In the all infection simulation, the geometry mutation of the infected cell from the biconcave shape to the spherical-like shape in the last infection stage is considered. Present simulation results using ABAQUS explicit showed an accurate agreement with in-vitro stretching optical tweezers tests.