Table 1.
The clinical descriptors and the chemotaxis measurements of the COPD patients and healthy control subjects in this study.
Fig 1.
Illustration of the microfluidic device for testing neutrophil chemotaxis.
(A) Illustration of the microfluidic gradient generator with a pressure balance zone. Red and blue dyes were injected into the device for visualization of the channels; (B) The fluorescent image of the FITC-Dextran gradient in the mirofluidic channel and the corresponding gradient profiles at different time points; (C) A representative image of neutrophils in a COPD sputum gradient in the microfluidic channel at the end of the 20min migration experiment; (D) The corresponding cell tracks for the experiment in (C).
Fig 2.
Neutrophil migration in different IL-8 and fMLP fields in the microfluidic device.
(A) C.I. and migration speed in different IL-8 and fMLP fields; (B) Representative images of cell morphology in different IL-8 and fMLP fields; (C) Aspect ratio of cells in different IL-8 and fMLP gradients. Positive C.I. indicates cell migration towards the chemoattractant source labeled on the top; negative C.I. indicates cell migration towards the chemoattractant source labeled at the bottom.
Fig 3.
Neutrophil migration in different sputum (COPD or healthy control) and fMLP fields.
(A) C.I. and migration speed in different sputum and fMLP fields; (B) IL-8 concentration in COPD sputum (n = 3) and healthy control sputum (n = 3); (C) Representative images of cell morphology in different sputum and fMLP fields. (D) Aspect ratio of cells in different sputum and fMLP gradients. Positive C.I. indicates cell migration towards the chemoattractant source labeled on the top; negative C.I. indicates cell migration towards the chemoattractant source labeled at the bottom.
Fig 4.
Correlations between neutrophil chemotaxis parameters and spirometry data.
(A) No correlation is found between C.I. and migration speed in COPD sputum gradient from a single representative experiment; (B) No correlation is found between C.I. and migration speed from different COPD sputum samples; (C) Correlation between C.I. and FEV1/FVC. The dashed ellipse highlights the data with significant correlation; (D) No correlation is found between the migration speed and FEV1/FVC. The error bars indicate SEM.