Berlin 2012 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 17: Posters: Physics of Cells
BP 17.13: Poster
Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 17:30–19:30, Poster A
The influence of substrate stiffness on integrin mediated cell properties — •Maja Gulic1, Reinhard Fässler2, and Kay-E. Gottschalk1 — 1Institute for Experimental Physics, Ulm University, Germany — 2Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Department of Molecular Medicine, Martinsried, Germany
Mechanical cues influence very basic cell properties like proliferation, cell shape or cell migration. Important components of the cell adhesion and migration machinery are the integrins, the actin cytoskeleton and messenger proteins. The analysis of the exact contribution of the individual components of this machinery to cellular properties is hampered by its complexity. Therefore, we reduced the complexity and examined mouse fibroblasts expressing only the fibronectin-binding integrins avb3 or a5b1 or a combination of the two.
To analyze the effect of substrate stiffness and correlate it with integrin expression, we performed experiments on cells growing on differently polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). We then analyzed cell proliferation and morphology of the cells on the different substrates. We show that the substrate stiffness has an integrin subtype dependent influence on cell proliferation and cell shape.