Vascular bifurcation influences the protein corona composition on nanoparticles and impacts their cellular uptake.

The protein corona (PC) that forms on nanoparticles (NPs) after injection influences their biodistribution, pharmacokinetics, and cell interaction. Although injected NPs traverse vascular networks, the impact of vascular features on the protein corona composition is mainly unexplored. Using an flow model that introduces bifurcations, a common feature of blood vessels, we show that vessels are not passive bystanders in the formation of the PC but that their features play active roles in defining the PC on NPs.