A Microphysiological System to Study Leukocyte-Endothelial Cell Interaction during Inflammation

Summary

In this protocol, a biomimetic microfluid assay, which can reproduce a physiologically relevant microvascular environment and reproduce the entire leukocyte adhesion/migration cascade, is employed to study leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions in inflammatory disease.

Abstract

Leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions play an important role in inflammatory diseases such as sepsis. During inflammation, excessive migration of activated leukocytes across the vascular endothelium into key organs can lead to organ failure. A physiologically relevant biomimetic microfluidic assay (bMFA) has been developed and validated using several experimental and computational techniques, which can reproduce the entire leukocyte rolling/adhesion/migration cascade to study leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions. Microvascular networks obtained from in vivo images in rodents were digitized using a Geographic Information System (GIS) approach and microfabricated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) on a microscope slide. To study the effect of shear rate and vascular topology on leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was developed to generate a corresponding map of shear rates and velocities throughout the network. The bMFA enables the quantification of leukocyte-endothelial cells interactions, including rolling velocity, number of adhered leukocytes in response to different shear rates, number of migrated leukocytes, endothelial cell permeability, adhesion molecule expression and other important variables. Furthermore, by using human-related samples, such as human endothelial cells and leukocytes, bMFA provides a tool for rapid screening of potential therapeutics to increase their clinical translatability.

Introduction

Inflammation is the host response to infection and injury, and the endothelium plays an important role in the inflammatory response^1,2,3. Inflammatory dysregulation is the underlying cause of a number of disease pathologies such as sepsis, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer and COVID-19. Leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions play a central role in these inflammatory diseases. During inflammation, the release of PAMPS (pathogen-associated molecular patterns) from pathogens or DAMPS (damage-associated molecular patterns) from injured tiss....

Protocol

Heparinized human blood is obtained for neutrophil isolation from healthy adult donors (males and females, aged between 21 and 60 years old), following informed consent as approved by the Institutional Review Board of Temple University (Philadelphia, PA, USA).

1. Priming and coating the device with human fibronectin

NOTE: The bMFA has two inlet ports and two outlet ports connected to the vascular compartment. It also has one port connected to the tissue compartment (Figure 2).

1. Insert tubing (O.D. of 0.06" and I.D. of 0.02") (Table of Mater....

Results

After 48 h of culture under shear flow in bMFA, endothelial cells covered the surface of the vascular channels in bMFA and aligned in the direction of flow (Figure 6). Confocal microscopy indicated that all surfaces of the vascular channels were covered by endothelial cells, forming a complete 3D lumen in bMFA¹⁸.

Using this protocol, a neutrophil adhesion map can be acquired, showing that there is significant adhesion of neutrophils to.......

Discussion

The bMFA reproduces the topography and flow conditions of the in vivo microvascular networks and can be used to study leukocyte-endothelial cell interaction and endothelial function in vitro under physiologically realistic conditions. In the microvasculature of either mouse or human, the geometry of the microvascular networks are self-similar and fractal, and the Reynolds number << 1, indicating that vascular geometry does not significantly impact flow patterns. Therefore, the bFMA can be used t.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
1 mL syringe	Fisher Scientific	14-823-30
Biomimetic microfluidic assay (bMFA)	SynVivo	SMN1-C001	Exclusive at SynVivo
Blunt needle	Jensen Global	JG24-0.5
Calcium Chloride	Fisher Scientific	C70-500
CFDA, SE	ThermoFisher	C1157
Dextran, 250,000, Powder	Spectrum Chemical Mfg. Corp	DE-130
Ficoll-Paque Premium	GE Health Care	17-5442-02	Leukocyte isolation media
fMLP	Sigma-Aldrich	F3506
Hepes	Fisher Scientific	AAJ1692630
Human fibronectin	Fisher Scientific	33-016-015	use vendor recommended ECM for different cell lines
Microvascular Endothelial Cell Growth Medium-2 BulletKit	Lonza	cc-3202	Human lung microvascular endothelial cell culture medium (HLMVEC).
Human lung microvascular endothelial cells	Lonza	cc-2527	use vedor remommended trypsin-EDTA and TNS
Magnesium Chloride	Fisher Scientific	BP214-500
Nikon Eclipse Ti2	Nikon Instruments Inc.		Microscope
NIS-elements, 5.20.01	Nikon Instruments Inc.		Imaging software
PBS	Fisher Scientific	MT21040CV
PhD Ultra Syringe Pump	Harvard Apparatus	70-3007	Syringe Pump
Potassium Hydroxide	Fisher Scientific	02-003-763
Recombinant Human TNF-alpha	R&D Systems	210-TA
Slide clamp	SynVivo
Sodium Chloride	Fisher Scientific	S640-500
Synvivo Pneumatic Primer	SynVivo
Trypsin-EDTA, Trypsin Neutralization Solution(TNS)	Lonza	cc-5034
Tygon tubing	Fisher Scientific	50-206-8921	Tubing