Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 32: Posters: Physics of Cells

BP 32.25: Poster

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B1

Collective organization and separation of multicellular systems — •Anatol Fritsch, Tobias Kießling, Franziska Wetzel, Mareike Zink, and Josef Käs — University of Leipzig, Germany

For the spatial organization of tissue in multicellular organisms the mechanical properties of single cells and their environment are of great importance. In embryogenesis cells have to migrate to their future destinations and furthermore collectively separate from other cell groups. Biomedical studies indicate that these compartments of cells have sharp borders keeping even cancerous cells from migrating across. From a physical point of view this may be explained with differences in surface tension, migration or mechanical stiffness of the cells.

We study the mechanical properties of primary tumor cells of different tissues using optical surface forces on single cells as well as their adhesion forces. Primary cells from different compartments or cell types are labeled and mixed to form a multicellular tumor spheroid. Active demixing of the different cell types can lead to sharp boarders separating them, which is then correlated to the single cell data acquired in precedent studies.