Biophysical and biomolecular interactions of malaria-infected erythrocytes in engineered human capillaries
Christopher K. Arakawa, Celina Gunnarsson, Caitlin Howard, Maria Bernabeu, Kiet T. Phong, Eric Yang, Cole A. DeForest, Joseph D. Smith, Ying Zheng
Abstract
-infected RBCs exhibited virtually no deformation and rapidly accumulated in the capillary-sized region. Comparison of wild-type parasites to those lacking either cytoadhesion ligands or membrane-stiffening knobs showed highly distinctive spatial and temporal kinetics of accumulation, linked to velocity transition in ACVs. Our findings shed light on mechanisms of microcirculatory obstruction in malaria and establish a new platform to study hematologic and microvascular diseases.
Topics & Concepts
MalariaHuman bloodPlasmodium (life cycle)Parasite hostingBiologyCell biologyImmunologyComputer sciencePhysiologyWorld Wide WebMalaria Research and ControlErythrocyte Function and PathophysiologyVibrio bacteria research studies