Rheological and mechanical aspects of leukocytes motion and adhesion

The questions of leukocyte adhesion to endothelium and motion of leukocytes in blood flow are important to treatment of many diseases occurring at vascular level. In the present study an overview of the literature of cell mechanics and cell adhesion as a multistage process that influence the microcirculation is done. These processes are characterized with some parameters, as a mean blood flow velocity, a critical velocity, a wall shear rate, a wall shear stress, etc. It is found in many of the studies that the investigated parameters are close related with the changes under pathological conditions. The investigation of the interaction of leukocyte adhesion molecules and the endothelial receptors may help our understanding of leukocyte behavior in the main vascular dysfunctions. There are different technical approaches used in current practice to study leukocyte adhesion under flow in real time – in vitro flow chamber (FCA) and in vivo intravital microscopy (IVM).