Fig. 3: Lysis of occlusive fibrin microgels.

a Schematic of occlusion of a cerebral artery in the brain. b Confinement-mediated relative increase in fibrin concentration in obstructive SMs (red solid circles), MMs (black solid squares), and RMs (blue solid triangles). c Experimental design used for studies of lysis of the confined fibrin gel. A solution of fluorescently labeled tPA in TBS was infused at a flow rate of 5.6 × 10⁷ μm³/s and an additional pressure difference of 0.7 Pa from a channel placed orthogonally to the long axis of the main microchannel. d Merged multi-channel microscopy images of an obstructive MM (D₀ = 200 μm) positioned at X_f = 28 μm at ΔP = 700 Pa and subjected to digestion. Vertical dashed lines show the original positions of the back and front MM edges at t_lys = 0. Green and pink colors correspond to FITC-Dextran (70 kDa) and AlexaFluor633-labeled tPA, respectively. e Temporal variation in the relative volume of occlusive RM with D₀ of 174 μm (blue hollow inverted triangles), 199 μm (blue triangles), and 218 μm (blue hollow triangles), respectively, placed at X_f = 28 ± 1 μm in the tapered microchannel region at ΔP of 1200, 1800, and 3000 Pa, respectively, and Q = 1860 ± 70 μm³/s. Inset shows RM (D₀ = 218 μm) blocking the microchannel. f Temporal variation in the relative volume of SM, MM, or RM (D₀ = 197 ± 3 μm) placed at X_f = 32 ± 12 μm in the tapered microchannel zone at ΔP of 400, 750, and 1800 Pa and Q of 12300, 2400, and 1860 μm³/s, respectively. X_f is the front edge position of the microgel determined its distance from the beginning of the constriction. V(t_lys) and V₀ is temporal volume of lysed microgel and the volume of the unperturbed microgel, respectively. The colors of symbols correspond to those in b. The black arrows in e, f correspond to the last time point before the microgel passed the microchannel. Scale bars in d, e are 100 μm.