Authors:

David Kichul Kim

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About Paper:

Schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease caused by Schistosoma worms, remains widespread in Africa, south America and parts of Asia. One major question of many researchers is to understand how Schistosoma eggs penetrate through soft tissue and initiate granuloma formation. We hypothesis that egg migration occurs either through forces exerted by surrounding fibroblasts or via a self -propelling mechanism intrinsic to the egg. To clarify how Schistosoma eggs migrate through host tissue, we built an in vitro platform that lets eggs interact with fibroblasts and form granulomas while their motion is tracked. Polyacrylamide gels were cast with controlled water volume (0-200 microliters) using Bio-Rad Fast-Cast reagents, tuning stiffness from 7.5 kPa to 12 kPa to replicate soft-tissue mechanics. Fluorescent beads embedded on the gel surface act as markers. An inverted fluorescence microscope captures their displacements, which result from gel deformation or egg-driven forces. A MATLAB code combining spatial cross-correlation and fast-Fourier transforms extracts local velocity vectors using particle image velocimetry (PIV) conventions. Test images of 256 x 256 pixels were processed in under five seconds, yielding vector fields that resolve bead shifts down to a single pixel. These preliminary results confirm that the system can measure the movement from the fluorescent beads, which the movement of eggs can also be measured once placed on the gel surfaces that mimic real tissue. Future work will involve correlating velocity magnitudes with the stiffness of the gel. Keywords: Schistosomiasis; Egg Migration; Polyacrylamide Gel; Particle Image Velocimetry; Fluorescence

Source:

Purdue University / 2025

Topics:

No topics listed

Co-authors:

David Kichul Kim