Impact of glycocalyx structure on red cell-red cell affinity in polymer suspensions

- A theoretical framework based on macromolecular depletion has been utilized in order to examine the energetics of red blood cell interactions.
- Our results show that the structure of the red blood cell glycocalyx has a large impact on adhesion energies between cells.
- Our findings indicate that mechanisms related to depletion-mediated attractive forces play an important in red blood cell aggregation.
- New insights into cell-cell interactions are provided that may eventually help to understand and quantify cellular factors that control red blood cell interactions in health and disease.