Investigating the effects of microtubules in the neuronal cell response to the blast load using fluid-structure interactions method

Traumatic brain injury states to the brain damage causing from sudden trauma. Undrestanding the mechanism and effects of such damages to the brain is of importance toward the treatment. In this research, a computational framework for considering the response of a neuronal cell is presented. The neuronal cell consists of three components including nucleus, cytoplasm, and membrane, and also the network of microtubules with the different arrays including crossing, stellate as well as random. In the simulation of blast loads, the pressure load driven by laser-induced and finite elements setup with fluid-structure interactions are considered. Cell components are assumed to follow viscoelastic and elastic mechanical behavior. The obtained results as compared to those of the experimental works showed different levels of cell damage. The presence of the microtubles network in cytoplasm, regardless of the types of array, reduces the total displacement of the cell and the von Mises stress in the other cell components. Furthermore, the network of microtubules plays a significant role in the total strength of the cell under the external imposed pressure. The membrane von Mises stress decrease 50 percent from 30 to 165 Pascals in presence of the network of microtubules.