Abstract
Purpose :
In the previous experiment, platelet, neutrophil aggregation were observed in the focus area of fungal keratitis in mice, but the relationship between platelet and neutrophil was not clear. Therefore, the effects and mechanisms of the antifungal activity of neutrophils enhanced by platelets were studied.
Methods :
All fungi used for experiments was the standard strain of Fusarium solani. Neutrophils and platelets were drawn from human peripheral venous and purified from whole blood respectively. Three groups were divided in this experiments: spore (S) group, spore + neutrophil (S+N) group co-incubated spores and isolated neutrophils together and spore + neutrophil + platelet (S+N+PL) group co-incubated spores, isolated neutrophils and platelets. The growth of fungi or neutrophils or platelets was observed and the pictures were took at specified time points used by a spinning disk confocal microscope. The rate of phagocytosis, spore germination, hyphae length and apoptosis in each group were calculated.
Results :
The rate of phagocytosis of neutrophils in S+N+PL group were higher at 1h, 2h and 4h compared with that in S+N group (P < 0.05). The rate of spore germination was lower in S+N+PL group compared with that in S+N group (P < 0.05). In addition, with longer incubated time, the apoptosis of neutrophils grown higher. Until 18h, the apoptosis rate of N group was grown as high as 74.56%. The highest apoptosis rate of neutrophils was in N group, followed by S+N group and S+N+PL group at each time point (P = 0.000). The apoptosis rate in S+N group was significantly higher than that in S+N+PL group at 6h, 10h, 14h and 18h (P < 0.01).
Conclusions :
Platelets could enhance neutrophils to engulf fungal spores,restrict fungal germination,delay the hyphae growth and reduce apoptosis of neutrophil. These results indicated that the platelets play an important role in anti-fungal field.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.