Disturbed flow promotes deposition of leukocytes from flowing whole blood in a model of a damaged vessel wall

Departure from simple laminar flow in arteries may promote the local attachment of leucocytes either to intact endothelium or platelet thrombi. We perfused blood through a chamber with a backward facing step, to observe whether adhesion from whole blood to P-selectin was indeed localized to a region of recirculating flow, and whether platelets binding to collagen in such a region could capture leucocytes. Blood flowing over the step established a stable vortex, a reattachment point where forward and backward flow separated, and a simple laminar flow with wall shear rate c. 400/s further downstream. Fluorescently labelled leucocytes were observed to attach to P-selectin immediately upstream or downstream of the reattachment point, and to roll back towards the step or away from it, respectively. There was negligible adhesion further downstream. When a P-selectin-Fc chimaera was used to coat the chamber, stable attachment occurred, again preferentially in the disturbed flow region. Numerous platelets adhered to a collagen coating throughout the chamber, although there were local maxima either side of the reattachment point. The adherent platelets captured flowing leucocytes in these regions alone. Leucocytes may adhere from flowing blood in vessels with high shear rate if the flow is disturbed. While platelets can adhere over a wider range of shear rates, their ability to capture leucocytes may be restricted to regions of disturbed flow.