A Uniform Shear Assay for Human Platelet and Cell Surface Receptors via Cone-plate Viscometry

Summary

We describe an in-solution method to apply uniform shear to platelet surface receptors using cone-plate viscometry. This method may also be used more broadly to apply shear to other cell types and cell-fragments and need not target a specific ligand-receptor pair.

Abstract

Many biological cells/tissues sense the mechanical properties of their local environments via mechanoreceptors, proteins that can respond to forces like pressure or mechanical perturbations. Mechanoreceptors detect their stimuli and transmit signals via a great diversity of mechanisms. Some of the most common roles for mechanoreceptors are in neuronal responses, like touch and pain, or hair cells which function in balance and hearing. Mechanosensation is also important for cell types which are regularly exposed to shear stress such as endothelial cells, which line blood vessels, or blood cells which experience shear in normal circulation. Viscometers are devices that detect the viscosity of fluids. Rotational viscometers may also be used to apply a known shear force to fluids. The ability of these instruments to introduce uniform shear to fluids has been exploited to study many biological fluids including blood and plasma. Viscometry may also be used to apply shear to the cells in a solution, and to test the effects of shear on specific ligand-receptor pairs. Here, we utilize cone-plate viscometry to test the effects of endogenous levels of shear stress on platelets treated with antibodies against the platelet mechanosensory receptor complex GPIb-IX.

Introduction

Mechanoreceptors are proteins that respond to mechanical stimuli, such as pressure or mechanical perturbation/deformation. For some mechanoreceptors, sensing these mechanical perturbations is explicit to the function of the cell types in which they are expressed. Take, for example, the stretch receptors in baroreceptor neurons; these mechanosensitive ion channels regulate blood pressure by sensing vascular "stretch"^1,2. In the inner ear, ion channels on hair cells detect mechanical deformations caused by sound waves³, and cutaneous low threshold mechanoreceptors (LTMRs) facilita....

Protocol

All methods using donor-derived human platelets described herein were approved by the Institutional Review Board of Emory University/Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

1. Blood Draw and Platelet Isolation

1. Draw human blood from consenting healthy adult donors via venipuncture on the day of the experiment into 3.8% trisodium citrate. One 4.5 mL tube of blood is sufficient to yield enough platelet rich plasma (PRP) for 20-25 conditions in donors whose platelet counts are close to 250 x 10³ per μL.
   NOTE: Avoid drawing blood via narrow gauge needles (smaller than 21 G).
2. Prepare PRP via centrifugation at 22 °C....

Results

Figure 1 outlines how the trigger model of GPIb-IX activation, initially introduced to explain shear-dependent receptor activation when anchored to the vessel wall, may also support activation of platelets crosslinked by a multivalent ligand. Figure 2 shows readouts of human platelet activation treated by two antibodies targeting the N-terminal domain of GPIb-IX (6B4 and 11A8), and one control antibody (normal IgG) under sheared and static conditions. In

Discussion

The protocol described in this manuscript allows quick and versatile assessment of the effect of laminar shear on platelet and cell surface receptors. The specific representative results presented here underscore how the effects of multimeric or bivalent ligands can be affected by shear flow. In addition to this application, a uniform shear assay has broad applications in observing shear-dependent effects. In the absence of a known ligand-receptor pair, a uniform shear assay can also detect the effects of shear on factor.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
APC anti-human CD62P (P-Selectin)	BioLegend	304910
Brookfield Cap 2000+ Viscometer	Brookfield	-
FITC-conjugated Erythrina cristagalli lectin (ECL)	Vector Labs	FL-1141
Pooled Normal Human Plasma	Precision Biologic	CCN-10
Vacutainer Light Blue Blood Collection Tube (Sodium Citrate)	BD	369714
Vacutainer Blood Collection Set, 21G x ¾" Needle	BD	367287