Profiling the glycocalyx-shear stress interplay via high-throughput rotational single-cell optical biosensing

Sallai, Igor and Varga, Dános Sebestyén and Csippa, Benjamin and Béres, Bálint and Szittner, Zoltán and Székács, Inna and Dér, András and Bonyár, Attila and Horváth, Róbert (2027) Profiling the glycocalyx-shear stress interplay via high-throughput rotational single-cell optical biosensing. SENSORS AND ACTUATORS B-CHEMICAL, 472. no.-141027. ISSN 0925-4005 (In Press)

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Abstract

Cells in living organisms are constantly exposed to fluid flow, which fundamentally influences their adhesion behavior and mechanobiological properties. Despite the critical role of flow in physiological and pathological processes, there are only a few experimental platforms that enable label-free investigation of flow-induced adhesion responses in large populations of individual cells under well-defined and tunable fluidic conditions. Here, we present a prototype device that integrates a resonant waveguide grating–based label-free optical biosensing approach with a custom-designed plate holder capable of inducing controlled rotation of the supernatant within standard well formats. This configuration allows real-time, single-cell–resolved monitoring of adhesion kinetics while dynamically modulating the mechanical environment experienced by the cells. We systematically examined the effects of fluidic field rotation across a range of rotation frequencies, as well as the impact of partial enzymatic degradation of the cellular glycocalyx, on cellular adhesion dynamics. To quantitatively characterize the underlying mechanical stimuli, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed to estimate fluid velocity fields and shear stress distributions within the custom well geometry. Our results identify a distinct shear stress regime in which cellular adhesion is enhanced, followed by higher mechanical force levels that lead to a reduction in adhesion strength. These findings provide a new experimental framework for probing flowdependent cellular biophysical responses at the single-cell level and contribute to a deeper understanding of adhesion regulation in physiologically relevant flow environments.

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