title: Threshold of microvascular occlusion: injury size defines the thrombosis scenario.
abstract: Damage to the blood vessel triggers formation of a hemostatic plug, which is meant to prevent bleeding, yet the same phenomenon may result in a total blockade of a blood vessel by a thrombus, causing severe medical conditions. Here, we show that the physical interplay between platelet adhesion and hemodynamics in a microchannel manifests in a critical threshold behavior of a growing thrombus. Depending on the size of injury, two distinct dynamic pathways of thrombosis were found: the formation of a nonocclusive plug, if injury length does not exceed the critical value, and the total occlusion of the vessel by the thrombus otherwise. We develop a mathematical model that demonstrates that switching between these regimes occurs as a result of a saddle-node bifurcation. Our study reveals the mechanism of self-regulation of thrombosis in blood microvessels and explains experimentally observed distinctions between thrombi of different physical etiology. This also can be useful for the design of platelet-aggregation-inspired engineering solutions.
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical Problems of Physicochemical Pharmacology RAS, Moscow, Russia; Federal Research and Clinical Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, Moscow, Russia. Electronic address: aleksey_belyaev@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Aleksey V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Belyaev
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical Problems of Physicochemical Pharmacology RAS, Moscow, Russia; Federal Research and Clinical Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, Moscow, Russia; Department of Physics, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia; HemaCore LLC, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Mikhail A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Panteleev
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical Problems of Physicochemical Pharmacology RAS, Moscow, Russia; Federal Research and Clinical Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, Moscow, Russia; Department of Physics, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia; HemaCore LLC, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Fazly I
authors.initials: FI
authors.lastname: Ataullakhanov
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D055806:Microvessels / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D010973:Platelet Adhesiveness / Q000502:physiology; D013927:Thrombosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*