Non-uniform distribution of myosin-mediated forces governs red blood cell membrane curvature through tension modulation
Fig 8
The role of tension and angle of applied forces.
Effective membrane tension and the angle of applied forces in the RBC dimple and rim regions work together to maintain the biconcave shape of an RBC. (A) Schematic of a biconcave RBC with a non-uniform distribution of force density across the dimple and rim regions. In both regions, the forces per unit area are applied with angle ϕ with respect to the tangent vector (as). (B-D) The shape error and the RBC shapes obtained from simulation for different angles of the applied forces (ϕ) for (B) tensionless membrane, (C) low tension (tension = 10−4 pN/nm), and (D) intermediate tension (tension = 10−3 pN/nm). For all values of the membrane tension, as the angle of forces deviates from normal (ϕ = 900) to tangential orientation (ϕ = 0), the simulated shapes flatten and the shape error increases.