Fig. 6: Incubation with trophozoite- and schizont-stage P. falciparum-iRBC induces minor transcriptional changes in BBB cell types. | Nature Communications

Fig. 6: Incubation with trophozoite- and schizont-stage P. falciparum-iRBC induces minor transcriptional changes in BBB cell types.

From: Plasmodium falciparum egress disrupts endothelial junctions and activates JAK-STAT signaling in a microvascular 3D blood-brain barrier model

Fig. 6

a Representation of the experimental timeline on 3D-BBB microvessels before and after 6-hour incubation with cytoadherent trophozoite or schizont P. falciparum-iRBC or control devices perfused with uRBC. b UMAP of sequenced BBB cells and P. falciparum-iRBC colored by experimental condition. c UMAP of BBB cells after exclusion of P. falciparum-iRBC. d Volcano plots of differentially expressed genes in endothelial cells upon 6-hour incubation with trophozoite- or schizont-stage iRBC, plotting the log2FC against the statistical significance (‐log10 of the FDR). Significantly up- or downregulated genes (FDR < 0.05, log2FC > 0.1 or log2FC < − 0.1, respectively) are marked in red or blue, respectively, and selected genes are labeled. e Heatmap showing log2FC values of selected genes belonging to significant GO-terms shown in Figs. 2f and 4b, in brain endothelial cells after 24-hour exposure to iRBC-egress media, or 6-hour exposure to trophozoite- or schizont-stage iRBC compared to the respective uRBC perfused control. A hierarchical clustering dendrogram was constructed based on the log2FC values of all genes differentially expressed in either of the experimental conditions. f Barplot showing the number of significantly differentially expressed genes (DE genes) (FDR < 0.05, log2FC > 0.1 or log2FC < − 0.1, respectively) in brain endothelial cells. Pericytes and astrocytes upon 3D-BBB microvessel exposure to trophozoite and schizont-stage iRBC, or iRBC-egress media, compared to the respective uRBC perfused controls.

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