Fig. 1. A kinetic model is developed to provide quantitative prediction of RBC sickling with or without the effects of anti-sickling drugs.
(A) Schematic of the inputs and outputs of the kinetic model (top), which describes the nucleation, growth, and branching of HbS fibers and RBC sickling (bottom). (B) Concise flow chart of prediction of RBC sickling through the kinetic model. The model inputs are temperature T, oxygen tension PO2, deoxygenation rate, HbS/HbA/… mole fraction Xs/XA/…, total hemoglobin concentration Ct, and RBC volume Vc. The kinetic model computes the following key quantities: the fraction of oxyhemoglobin Θ, hemoglobin solubility Ce and supersaturation Δμ, the nucleation delay time τd, homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation rates J and Js, fiber growth rate R, fiber length, and the RBC sickling time. The theories or empirical relations used to compute these kinetic quantities are given between each step. The parameters in the kinetic model are highlighted in the parentheses at each step.