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. 2017 May 16;2(2):139–155. doi: 10.1002/btm2.10063

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Particle shape dictates immune cell uptake and activation. (a) Spherical polymeric particles fabricated from polystyrene‐polyethylene oxide that exhibit rough surfaces (left) were preferentially taken up by macrophages and induced a pro‐inflammatory response compared to smooth particles (right) (Scale bar, 10 µm; inset scale bar, 5 µm). (b) Electron micrographs of gold nanoconstructs with spherical (left), cube (center), or rod‐like (right) shapes. When incubated with DCs, rod‐like particles induced inflammatory IL‐1β and activated the inflammasome, while sphere and cubes caused secretion of TNF‐α (Scale bar, 40 nm). (c) Spherical PLGA particles that are mechanically stretched to form ellipsoidal particles increase surface interactions with immune cells, leading to increased T cell proliferation. (Scale bar, 10 µm). (a) Reprinted with permission from Vaine CA, Patel MK, Zhu J, et al. Tuning innate immune activation by surface texturing of polymer microparticles: the role of shape in inflammasome activation. J Immunol. 2013;190(7):3525‐3532. (b) Reprinted with permission from Niikura K, Matsunaga T, Suzuki T, et al. Gold nanoparticles as a vaccine platform: influence of size and shape on immunological responses in vitro and in vivo. ACS Nano. 2013;7(5):3926‐3938. (c) Reprinted from Sunshine JC, Perica K, Schneck JP, Green JJ. Particle shape dependence of CD8+ T cell activation by artificial antigen presenting cells. Biomaterials. 2014;35(1):269‐277 with permission from Elsevier