The adhesion of a circulating tumor cell (CTC) in a three-dimensional curved microvessel was numerically investigated. Simulations were first performed to characterize the differences in the dynamics and adhesion of a CTC in the straight and curved vessels. After that, a parametric study was performed to investigate the effects of the applied driven force density f (or the flow Reynolds number Re) and the CTC membrane bending modulus K_b on the CTC adhesion. Our simulation results show that the CTC prefers to adhere to the curved vessel as more bonds are formed around the transition region of the curved part due to the increased cell-wall contact by the centrifugal force. The parametric study also indicates that when the flow driven force f (or Re) increases or when the CTC becomes softer (K_b decreases), the bond formation probability increases and the bonds will be formed at more sites of a curved vessel. The increased f (or Re) brings a larger centrifugal force, while the decreased K_b generates more contact areas at the cell-wall interface, both of which are beneficial to the bond formation. In the curved vessel, it is found that the site where bonds are formed the most (hotspot) varies with the applied f and the K_b. For our vessel geometry, when f is small, the hotspot tends to be within the first bend of the vessel, while as f increases or K_b decreases, the hotspot may shift to the second bend of the vessel.

数值研究了循环肿瘤细胞 (CTC) 在三维弯曲微血管中的粘附。首先进行模拟以表征直血管和弯曲血管中 CTC 动力学和粘附的差异。之后，进行参数研究以研究施加的驱动力密度f（或流动雷诺数 Re）和 CTC 膜弯曲模量K _b对 CTC 粘附的影响。我们的模拟结果表明，由于离心力增加了细胞壁接触，CTC 更喜欢粘附在弯曲的血管上，因为在弯曲部分的过渡区域周围形成了更多的键。参数研究还表明，当流动驱动力f（或 Re）增加或当 CTC 变软（K _b减小）时，键形成的概率增加，并且在弯曲血管的更多位点形成键。f（或Re）的增加带来更大的离心力，而K _b的降低在细胞壁界面产生更多的接触面积，这两者都有利于键的形成。在弯曲的血管中，发现键形成最多的位置（热点）随施加的f和K _{b 变化}。对于我们的容器几何形状，当f很小时，热点往往位于容器的第一个弯曲处，而随着f 的增加或K _b减小，热点可能转移到容器的第二个弯曲处。