Utility of microfluidic devices to study the platelet–endothelium interface

Abstract

The integration of biomaterials and understanding of vascular biology has led to the development of perfusable endothelialized flow models, which have been used as valuable tools to study the platelet–endothelium interface under shear. In these models, the parameters of geometry, compliance, biorheology, and cellular complexity are varied to recapitulate the physical biology of platelet recruitment and activation under physiologically relevant conditions of blood flow. In this review, we summarize the mechanistic insights learned from perfusable microvessel models and discuss the potential utility as well as challenges of endothelialized microfluidic devices to study platelet function in the bloodstream in vitro.

Keywords:

• Endothelial cell
• shear
• vessel barrier
• VWF

Acknowledgments

We thank Laura Healy and Drs. András Gruber, Monica Hinds, Annachiara Mitrugno and Joseph Aslan for insightful comments. This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers R01HL101972 and R01GM116184). O. J. T. McCarty is an American Heart Association Established Investigator (grant number 13EIA12630000). J. L. Sylman is supported by a BD STEP Fellowship.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declaration of interest.