Narrowing down how stenosed arteries alter vesicle transport

Arterial stenosis, the narrowing and stiffening of arteries common in atherosclerosis, can alter the transport of elastic vesicles, a cell-analogous system also used for drug delivery. Previous work studying the interactions between vesicles and arteries has either studied the movement of vesicles through rigid arteries, which are not physiologically realistic, or blood flow without vesicles in more realistic deformable arteries.

Pabi et al. numerically investigated the transport of elastic vesicles through realistic, deformable stenosed arteries. The authors presented a fluid-structure interaction model that integrates deformable arterial walls, elastic vesicles with viscoelastic membranes, different stenosis geometries, and shear-thinning non-Newtonian blood flow into a single framework. This allowed them to resolve two-way coupling between these elements.

“Our study bridges a major gap between simplified droplet models and realistic cell transport scenarios, offering insights that advance cardiovascular biomechanics, disease progression, and vesicle-based drug-delivery design, while also introducing a lumped spring–damper theoretical model that links hydraulic resistance to the combined elastic and viscous properties of both the vesicle and the arterial wall,” said author Abhishek Raj.

The model revealed that different stenosis geometries — elliptical, round, and sinusoidal — affect vesicle dynamics differently. Additionally, as stenosis becomes more severe, the vesicles become more deformed, which increases their susceptibility to rupture and adhesion. The size and elasticity of the vesicles also control their deformation.

These results demonstrate that the optimum elasticity of vesicle membranes is important for their performance in stenosed arteries.

“One application of this work is in optimizing vesicle- or liposome-based drug delivery systems for targeted cardiovascular therapy,” Raj said.

This model could be extended to include patient-specific stenosis shapes obtained with medical imaging, and multiple interacting vesicles or cells.

Source: “Migration dynamics and hydrodynamic resistance of elastic vesicles in deformable stenosed arteries: A fluid-structure interaction study,” by Souvik Pabi, Abhishek Raj, and Mohd. Kaleem Khan, Physics of Fluids (2026). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0314137 .