# Quantifying the biophysical properties of stomatocytes in health and disease

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.05227 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.05227/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 3 of its 63 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Jun 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [GRAFT-ATHENA: Self-Improving Agentic Teams for Autonomous Discovery and Evolutionary Numerical Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.11117/) (2026)
- [OpenRBC: A Fast Simulator of Red Blood Cells at Protein Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1701.02059/) (2017)
- [Deep reinforcement learning with a particle dynamics environment applied to emergency evacuation of a room with obstacles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.00065/) (2020)

## Abstract (arXiv)

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.