Influences of Endothelial Cell Alignment on Lymphocyte Dynamics under Flow

Abstract

In inflammation, immune cells circulating our bodies along blood vessels infiltrate into a layer of endothelial cells to approach infection sites. In recent years many in vitro models have been applied to study these immune cell dynamics on inflamed endothelial cells in expectation of more intensive therapeutic approaches. One of the key aspects that have not been considered in current in vitro assay is the orientation of endothelial cells

in real healthy blood vessels, endothelial cells are aligned in parallel with the direction of blood flow. To address the importance of endothelial cell alignment on lymphocyte dynamics, endothelial cells aligned well on the nano groove/ridge-patterned substrates were utilized in experiments. Then lymphocyte dynamics on aligned endothelial layers (either parallel or perpendicular to the direction of flow) and randomly oriented endothelial layers were tracked by video microscopy. Distinct lymphocyte dynamics were observed in each case of endothelial alignment.