Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 21: Focus: Stress Relaxation in Polymers - From single molecules to biological cells (with CPP)

BP 21.8: Talk

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 11:45–12:00, C 243

Thermorheology of single living cells — •Tobias R. Kießling, Anatol W. Fritsch, Roland Stange und Josef Käs — Universität Leipzig, Institut für Experimentelle Physik I, Physik der weichen Materie, Linnéstr. 5, 04103 Leipzig

Within reasonable temperature ranges, many biological functions are known to undergo modulations, like myosin motor activity, CO2 uptake of cultured cells or sex determination of several species. As mechanical properties of living cells are considered to play a key role for plenty of cell functions ranging from stem cell differentiation to cancer progression, it is surprising that only little is known on how their rheology is affected by temperature. Using an Optical Stretcher, thousands of single cell experiments were performed to systematically assess the effect of temperature on cell deformability. The impact of slow temperature changes occurring on a scale of about 30 minutes is compared to the influence of defined heat shocks in a range of milliseconds. Differences of thereby revealed temperature dependencies are discussed and compared to findings from in vitro rheological studies on polymer solutions.