ИСТИНА

The main goal of this work was to study in vitro the adhesion of erythrocytes to the endothelium, as well as the effect of endothelium on erythrocyte aggregation at various concentrations of interferon alfa-2b (IFNa) at its incubation with endothelium or its simple addition to the sample. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells were grown on round glass coverslips as a monolayer. Between measurements, the cells were kept in a CO2 environment at 37°C. Whole blood was collected from the antecubital veins of healthy volunteers into lithium heparin tubes. The measurements were performed in microcuvettes with a monolayer of endothelium at the bottom, filled with plasma with a small number of erythrocytes (hct about 0.05%). Home built dual-channel optical tweezers using Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm, 100 mW) were applied for measuring the cells interaction forces in the piconewton range. The obtained results show a statistically significant decrease in paired erythrocytes aggregation forces in the presence of endothelium and IFNa. The magnitude of the effect is greater in the samples in which IFNa was added to the plasma without prior incubation with endothelium cells. In contrast, the samples, in which endothelium was incubated with IFNa for 24 hours and then exposed to plasma without IFNa showed weaker trends in reducing erythrocytes aggregation. The adhesion force of erythrocytes to endothelium was in the range of 1-2 pN in almost all experiments. This force decreased slightly or did not significantly change with increasing IFNa concentration. These results may support the hypothesis of a short-term effect of IFNa on the endothelial and erythrocyte system. Subsequent studies of the interaction of erythrocytes, endothelial cells and IFNa may clarify the mechanisms responsible for this interaction. The work was financially supported by the RSF grant #22-15-00120.