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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

An All-on-chip Method for Rapid Neutrophil Chemotaxis Analysis Directly from a Drop of Blood
Published on: June 23, 2017
Shape oscillations: a fundamental response of human neutrophils stimulated by chemotactic peptides?
M U Ehrengruber1, T D Coates, D A Deranleau
1Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Neutrophils undergo periodic cytoskeletal rearrangements that lead to cycles of shape change, ultimately resulting in cell translocation. Repeated stimulation of resting neutrophils with subsaturating chemoattractant doses induced transient sinusoidal oscillations in neutrophil filamentous actin content at the second and subsequent stimulations. Oscillation frequencies increased with increasing concentration of the first stimulus. In contrast, neutrophils pretreated with the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor (17-hydroxy)wortmannin displayed shape oscillations with the first stimulation, and the frequencies were independent of agonist type and dose. We demonstrate that oscillations in filamentous actin, which may be critical for neutrophil motility, can be induced in untreated cells by natural peptide chemoattractants.
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