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Macrophages bend long fibres with flexural rigidity lower than 3 mN·nm2 to avoid frustrated phagocytosis
Summary
Researchers observed and modeled macrophages internalizing long fibers by bending them into arcs and spirals, determining that fibers with flexural rigidity below approximately 3 mN·nm² can be fully phagocytized, establishing rigidity as a critical parameter for predicting fiber-cell interactions and material safety.
A macrophage was observed bending an exceptionally long fibre (~ 140 μm) first into an arc and then a spiral for full internalization, initiated by a pseudopod extending along the fibre and buckling the internalized segment. Our model can reproduce such behaviour. It yielded a flexural rigidity of 20 mN·nm² for this fibre. Predicted critical rigidity limits for fibres that just fit into NR8383 macrophages range from 3 to 62 mN·nm². Using the conservative lower bound, long and biodurable fibres with a rigidity lower than 3 mN·nm² are expected to be readily phagocytized by this cell line. Although this rigidity scale may not be directly translatable to human alveolar macrophages, our experimental findings and their modeling emphasize the key role of rigidity in fibre-cell interactions. Fibre rigidity is therefore central for material safety aspects and sustainable product design.
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