Pitting of malaria parasites in microfluidic devices mimicking spleen interendothelial slits.

ABSTRACT: The spleen is a hematopoietic organ that participates in cellular and humoral immunity. It also serves as a quality control mechanism for removing senescent and/or poorly deformable red blood cells (RBCs) from circulation. Pitting is a specialized process by which the spleen extracts particles, including malaria parasites, from within circulating RBCs during their passage through the interendothelial slits (IES) in the splenic cords. To study this physiological function in vitro, we have developed two microfluidic devices modeling the IES, according to the hypothesis that at a certain range of mechanical stress on the RBC, regulated through both slit size and blood flow, would force it undergo the pitting process without affecting the cell integrity. To prove its functionality in replicati

SUBMITTER: Elizalde-Torrent A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8585870 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature