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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Apr 10.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Mater. 2016 Oct 10;16(2):230–235. doi: 10.1038/nmat4772

Figure 1.

Figure 1

The fundamental unit driving clot stiffening, a single platelet pulling against a fibrin/ogen substrate, is established by recapitulating the mechanical and biological microenvironment of the platelet. a, Fluorescently-conjugated fibrinogen microdot pairs are covalently bound to a deformable polyacrylamide hydrogel of known mechanical properties. As a platelet adheres and pulls pairs of fibrinogen microdots together, the contractile force is proportional to the microdot displacement. b, Super-resolution microscopy images of individual platelets with various degrees of contraction, scale bar is 2 μm c, Scanning electron microscopy image of a platelet contracting a fibrinogen microdot pair, scale bar is 2 μm. d, Real time contractile measurements of 4 single platelets.