Fig. 3: Adhesion of microplastic particles to cells under shear force.
From: Nominally identical microplastic models differ greatly in their particle-cell interactions
a After the particles sedimented and bound (red) to the cells (light green) and the coverslip (green) for 10 min in the microfluidic chamber, we turned on a Poiseuille flow with a profile v(z) given by Eq. (15) in our channels, imposing a hydrodynamic force of F = (50 ± 5) pN (Eq. (7)) on the particles. b, c Right before the flow, all particles sedimented and attached to cells or coverslips. We determined the fraction remaining particles after 30 s of flushing. Scale bars: 50 µm. d Fraction of particles remaining on cells. The observed fraction of particles remaining on cells significantly differed between samples (Kruskal–Wallis test, two-sided P = 2.05 × 10−9). The adhesion strength of microplastic particles was strongly correlated with their ζ-potential (Pearson’s R = 0.95, two-sided P = 1.4 × 10−6). While neutral particles barely adhered to cells, the adhesive forces between microplastic particles and cells increased with a more negative ζ-potential. In all panels, error bars represent standard error of mean of n = 9 measurements (for each measurement, on average 550 particles were analyzed). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
