Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 11, 2026
A Flow Adhesion Assay to Study Leucocyte Recruitment to Human Hepatic Sinusoidal Endothelium Under Conditions of Shear Stress
Published on: March 21, 2014
Intermittent flow increases endotoxin-induced adhesion of human erythrocytes to vascular endothelial cells
Otto Eichelbrönner1, William J Sibbald, Ian H Chin-Yee
1A.C. Burton Vascular Biology Laboratory, London Health Sciences Centre, University of Western Ontario, 800 Commissoners Road East, London, Ontario N6A 4G5, Canada.
Objective:
To investigate the effects of different conditions of flow on endotoxin induced adhesion of human red blood cells (RBC) to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC).
Design And Setting:
Prospective, randomized, controlled in vitro study in a university-affiliated cell biology laboratory. SUBJECTS. Human erythrocytes, human vascular endothelial cells.
Interventions:
Superfusion of HUVEC monolayers with human erythrocytes incubated with either saline (CON) or endotoxin (ETX) with different flow pattern (basic flow rates of 0.65 or 1.3 ml/min; intermittent flow, IMF). The CON/0.6, CON/1.3, CON-IMF/1.3 ( n=7/group) groups served as control, and in test groups ETX/0.6, ETX/1.3, ETX-IMF/0.6, and ETX-IMF/1.3 ( n=7/group) both RBC and HUVECs were incubated with ETX and flow pattern and rates varied. In the IMF experiments flow rates of 0.65 and 1.3 ml/min were combined with stop-and-go flow pattern.
Measurements And Results:
At continuous flow of 0.65 ml/min erythrocyte adhesion was 61+/-5 cells/mm(2) in CON and 172+/-25 cells/mm(2) after ETX. When flow rate was increased to 1.3 ml/min, adhesion decreased to 27+/-4 cells/mm(2) in CON and 93+/-18 cells/mm(2) after ETX. IMF conditions had no effect on RBC adhesion of naive RBC but increased the number of adhesive erythrocytes after incubation with ETX both at 0.65 ml/min (287+/-33 cells/mm(2)) and at 1.3 ml/min (148+/-13 cells/mm(2)).
Conclusions:
RBC adhesion to vascular endothelium is affected by rate and pattern of blood flow. Higher flow rates or shear forces reduce RBC adhesion while stop-and-go flow pattern favored adhesion of ETX-treated erythrocytes to HUVECs. These findings suggest that altered RBCs interact with altered flow patterns potentially contributing to the microcirculatory injury observed in sepsis.
