Paper accepted: “Cellular stress induces erythrocyte assembly on intravascular von Willebrand factor strings and promotes microangiopathy”

Today, a paper co-authored by Stefan Hoffmann from the ex-Goycoolea-group in collaboration with Christian Gorzelanny from the Department of Dermatology of Heidelberg University and many others on the involvement of erythrocytes in microvascular occlusion has been accepted for publication in the journal Scientific Reports. Microvascular occlusion, also called microangiopathy, and subsequent organ damage, such as renal damage leading to kidney failure, represents a major complication in several diseases, including sepsis and diabetes. The mechanism of this vascular occlusion is poorly understood, though it is known that von Willebrandt factor is involved. In this study, the authors showed that stressed, but not healthy erythrocytes can bind to activated von Willebrandt factor on the surface of vascular endothelial cells, thus contributing to occlusion of blood vessels. Stefan contributed to this study by measuring the zeta potential, i.e. the surface charge, of erythrocytes, showing that stress conditions do not influence the surface charge of the erythrocytes and therefore cannot be responsible for the increased binding of stressed erythrocytes to von Willebrandt factor. This is a typical example of work performed by the “Goycoos” which shows the importance of understanding physico-chemical interactions between cells and molecules, an expertise rather rarely seen in biologists.