Platelets hunt bacteria

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– Did you know? Platelets don’t just make our blood clot. They help hunt bacteria, too. ⠀

Repost from @the_scientist_magazine using @RepostRegramApp

Researchers explore how blood platelets sweep bacteria into aggregate bundles at sites of infection to help phagocytic cells dispose of them. On the left, you can see the movement trajectory of a migrating human platelet from top to bottom, shown as a sequence of time-lapse images of the cell’s outline. On the right, you can see the bundles (indicated by arrows) formed by human platelets when they collect bacteria on their path. ⠀

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See F. Gärtner et al., “Migrating platelets are mechano-scavengers that collect and bundle bacteria”, Cell, doi10.1016/j.cell.2017.11.001, 2017. ⠀

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