Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 26: Poster Session II
BP 26.20: Poster
Thursday, March 29, 2007, 17:00–19:30, Poster B
Viscoelastic monitoring mesenchymal stem cells differentiating towards cartilage cells — •Karla Müller1, Matthias Zscharnack2, Jörg Galle3, and Josef Käs1 — 1Institute for Soft Matter Physics, University of Leipzig — 2Cell Techniques and Applied Stem Cell Biology, Center for Biotechnology and Biomedicine, University of Leipzig — 3Insitiute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epedimology, University of Leipzig
The production of cartilage tissue is of enormous medical interest as the replacement of damaged cartilage in knees, for example, nowadays still affords surgical dissection of cartilage tissue close to the damaged site. A new therapeutic approach avoids the dissection of healthy tissue. It uses the fact that mesenchymal stem cells can be differentiated in vitro to form cartilage tissue. This new therapeutic approach is called Multiparametric Monitoring and Steering of Mesenchymal Stem Cell derived Cartilage Formation in 3D Production Systems. We present the mechanical characterization of mesenchymal stem cells on their differentiation path towards cartilage cells. The technique used to noninvasively probe the mechanical properties of suspended cells, is the Optical Stretcher. The elasticity measurements allow us to follow the steps of differentiation without using cell surface markers that would contaminate the cell sample and make it unsuitable for further culture. Adherent stem cells are indented by a modified AFM tip and so they can be characterized even before the first passage.We are furthermore able to determine the single cartilage cell properties and to relate them to the integral properties of cartilage tissue.