Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31586520›Full record

ArticleBiophysical journal2019

Assaying How Phagocytic Success Depends on the Elasticity of a Large Target Structure.

Megan Davis-Fields, Layla A Bakhtiari, Ziyang Lan, Kristin N Kovach, Liyun Wang, Elizabeth M Cosgriff-Hernandez, Vernita D Gordon

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Biophysical journal, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Tandem ssDNA in neutrophil extracellular traps binds thrombin and regulates immunothrombosis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Megan Davis-FieldsInstitute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; Center for Nonlinear Dynamics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.
Layla A BakhtiariCenter for Nonlinear Dynamics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.
Ziyang LanDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.
Kristin N KovachCenter for Nonlinear Dynamics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.
Liyun WangCenter for Nonlinear Dynamics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.
Elizabeth M Cosgriff-HernandezDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.
Vernita D GordonInstitute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; Center for Nonlinear Dynamics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. Electronic address: gordon@chaos.utexas.edu.

Funding

Assessing the roles of biofilm structure and mechanics in pathogenic, persistent infectionsR01AI121500 · NIAID · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN · PI GORDON, VERNITA DIANE · 2017 to 2020
$1.5M
NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI121500
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Biofilm infections can consist of bacterial aggregates that are an order of magnitude larger than neutrophils, phagocytic immune cells that densely surround aggregates but do not enter them. Because a neutrophil is too small to engulf the entire aggregate, it must be able to detach and engulf a few bacteria at a time if it is to use phagocytosis to clear the infection. Current research techniques do not provide a method for determining how the success of phagocytosis, here defined as the complete engulfment of a piece of foreign material, depends on the mechanical properties of a larger object from which the piece must be removed before being engulfed. This article presents a step toward such a method. By varying polymer concentration or cross-linking density, the elastic moduli of centimeter-sized gels are varied over the range that was previously measured for Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms grown from clinical bacterial isolates. Human neutrophils are isolated from blood freshly drawn from healthy adult volunteers, exposed to gel containing embedded beads for 1 h, and removed from the gel. The percentage of collected neutrophils that contain beads that had previously been within the gels is used to measure successful phagocytic engulfment. Both increased polymer concentration in agarose gels and increased cross-linking density in alginate gels are associated with a decreased success of phagocytic engulfment. Upon plotting the percentage of neutrophils showing successful engulfment as a function of the elastic modulus of the gel to which they were applied, it is found that data from both alginate and agarose gels collapse onto the same curve. This suggests that gel mechanics may be impacting the success of phagocytosis and demonstrates that this experiment is a step toward realizing methods for measuring how the mechanics of a large target, or a large structure in which smaller targets are embedded, impact the success of phagocytic engulfment.

Indexed as

BiofilmsElastic ModulusPhagocytosisAdultAlginatesCells, CulturedHumansHydrogelsNeutrophilsPseudomonas aeruginosaSepharoseViscosityAlginatesHydrogelsSepharose

Identifiers

PMID31586520
PMCPMC6817645

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.