Fig. 1
From: Red blood cell-hitchhiking boosts delivery of nanocarriers to chosen organs by orders of magnitude
Clinically translatable nanocarriers adsorb onto red blood cells. a Procedural steps of RBC hitchhiking. NCs are first adsorbed onto the RBCs ex vivo. The RBC–NC complexes are then injected via an intravascular catheter, after which the NCs transfer from the RBCs to the first downstream organ’s capillaries. b Scanning electron micrographs of PS-NPs and nanogels attached to the surface of murine RBCs. NCs were mixed with RBCs in vitro, leading to adsorption of NCs onto the RBCs. Scale bars = 1 μm. c Efficiency of radiolabeled NC adsorption onto RBCs, as defined by the % of total NC added to RBCs that pellet with RBCs. d Number of NCs adsorbed per RBC when NCs were mixed with RBCs at a ratio of 2000 NCs per RBC. e Adsorption efficiencies onto RBCs of free proteins (IgG and BSA) compared to free nanogels and to nanogels coated with each protein. f Adsorption efficiencies of unmodified and IgG-coated NCs with increasing concentrations of serum present in the buffer during adsorption. Each data point represents mean ± s.e.m (n = 3). *P < 0.05, non-paired, two-tailed t-test
