Fig. 6. The shape dependence of the phagocytosis of polymeric particles by macrophages and dendritic cells.

Uptake of the spherical and AR6 rod-shaped polystyrene particles of different sizes by (A) mouse bone marrow–derived macrophages and (B) rat alveolar macrophages in RPMI media. The concentration of the particles was fixed at 10⁷ particles/ml, and the concentration of the cells was set at 5 × 10⁶ and 10⁷ cells/ml, respectively, for mouse bone marrow–derived and rat alveolar macrophages. Uptake of rods and spheres of different sizes by mouse bone marrow–derived dendritic cells with the fixed particle concentration of (C) 10⁷ particles/ml and (D) 10⁸ particles/ml. The concentration of the cells was fixed at 5 × 10⁶ cells/ml. Two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni posttest was used for analyzing (A) to (C), and unpaired t test was used for analyzing (D) (ns, P > 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001).