title: Microstructured Blood Vessel Surrogates Reveal Structural Tropism of Motile Malaria Parasites.
abstract: Plasmodium sporozoites, the highly motile forms of the malaria parasite, are transmitted naturally by mosquitoes and traverse the skin to find, associate with, and enter blood capillaries. Research aimed at understanding how sporozoites select blood vessels is hampered by the lack of a suitable experimental system. Arrays of uniform cylindrical pillars can be used to study small cells moving in controlled environments. Here, an array system displaying a variety of pillars with different diameters and shapes is developed in order to investigate how Plasmodium sporozoites associate to the pillars as blood vessel surrogates. Investigating the association of sporozoites to pillars in arrays displaying pillars of different diameters reveals that the crescent-shaped parasites prefer to associate with and migrate around pillars with a similar curvature. This suggests that after transmission by a mosquito, malaria parasites may use a structural tropism to recognize blood capillaries in the dermis in order to gain access to the blood stream.
authors.affiliation: Integrative Parasitology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Mendi J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Muthinja
authors.affiliation: Integrative Parasitology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ripp
authors.affiliation: Integrative Parasitology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Janina K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hellmann
authors.affiliation: DWI Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials, Forkenbeckstrasse 50, Aachen, 52056, Germany.|Department of Cellular Biophysics, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Department of Biophysical Chemistry, Heidelberg University, Jahnstrasse 29, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Tamas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Haraszti
authors.affiliation: Integrative Parasitology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Noa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dahan
authors.affiliation: Integrative Parasitology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Leandro
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lemgruber
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Physics and BioQuant, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 267, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Battista
authors.affiliation: Integrative Parasitology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Lucas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schütz
authors.affiliation: Integrative Virology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Oliver T
authors.initials: OT
authors.lastname: Fackler
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Physics and BioQuant, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 267, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulrich S
authors.initials: US
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Biophysics, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Department of Biophysical Chemistry, Heidelberg University, Jahnstrasse 29, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Joachim P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Spatz
authors.affiliation: Integrative Parasitology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Friedrich
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Frischknecht
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D009033:Culicidae / Q000469:parasitology*; D006801:Humans; D055806:Microvessels / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D034101:Sporozoites / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*
keywords: PDMS pillar arrays; apicomplexa; blood vessels; gliding motility; sporozoites