Image-Based Modeling of Blood Flow and Oxygen Transfer in Feto-Placental Capillaries.

ABSTRACT: During pregnancy, oxygen diffuses from maternal to fetal blood through villous trees in the placenta. In this paper, we simulate blood flow and oxygen transfer in feto-placental capillaries by converting three-dimensional representations of villous and capillary surfaces, reconstructed from confocal laser scanning microscopy, to finite-element meshes, and calculating values of vascular flow resistance and total oxygen transfer. The relationship between the total oxygen transfer rate and the pressure drop through the capillary is shown to be captured across a wide range of pressure drops by physical scaling laws and an upper bound on the oxygen transfer rate. A regression equation is introduced that can be used to estimate the oxygen transfer in a capillary using the vascular resistance. Tw

SUBMITTER: Pearce P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5082864 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature