{"ID":3085319,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-05T06:46:15.197025399Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-05T11:43:53.432517148Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.05227","arxiv_id":"2606.05227","title":"Quantifying the biophysical properties of stomatocytes in health and disease","abstract":"Hereditary stomatocytosis (HS) comprises red blood cell (RBC) disorders characterized by cup-shaped erythrocytes that respond oppositely to splenectomy: curative in overhydrated HS (OHS) but potentially thrombogenic in dehydrated HS (DHS/xerocytosis). This paradox persists because RBC biomechanics is governed by partly independent parameters--shear modulus, bending rigidity, surface-to-volume ratio (S/V), and cytoplasmic viscosity--that existing assays capture only piecemeal. Here we combine dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations with microfluidic imaging to construct a control discocyte and three stomatocyte models (ST-RBC1-3) at fixed membrane area and decreasing volume (109.7, 101.5, 89.8 fL), spanning the OHS-to-DHS range. Tracing this parameter set through five mechanically orthogonal assays, we find that interendothelial-slit (IES) traversal is geometry-dominated: overhydrated ST-RBC1 requires an order of magnitude higher critical pressure than healthy RBCs, whereas dehydrated ST-RBC3 passes freely. ST-RBC3 nonetheless suppresses membrane tank-treading and raises low-shear whole-blood viscosity by ~29% at physiological haematocrit, comparable to Gaucher-disease hyperviscosity. A funnel-obstacle chip amplifies these differences into a label-free centerline-offset signal predicted to separate all four RBC types (~4.5 standard deviations between extreme phenotypes). These results unite single-cell mechanics, splenic filtration, and hemorheology in one framework, resolve the splenectomy paradox, and point toward microfluidic pre-operative risk stratification in HS.","short_abstract":"Hereditary stomatocytosis (HS) comprises red blood cell (RBC) disorders characterized by cup-shaped erythrocytes that respond oppositely to splenectomy: curative in overhydrated HS (OHS) but potentially thrombogenic in dehydrated HS (DHS/xerocytosis). This paradox persists because RBC biomechanics is governed by partly...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.05227","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.05227v1","authors":"[\"Zhaojie Chai\",\"Jianlu Zheng\",\"He Li\",\"Ming Dao\",\"George Em Karniadakis\"]","published":"2026-06-02T17:44:26Z","proceeding":"q-bio.CB","tasks":"[\"q-bio.CB\",\"cs.LG\",\"math-ph\",\"q-bio.BM\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}