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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 30: New Perspectives of Scattering at Soft Matter
CPP 30.10: Vortrag
Mittwoch, 28. März 2012, 18:00–18:15, C 264
X-Ray Nano-Diffraction on Intracellular Keratin Bundles — •Britta Weinhausen1,2, Jannick Langfahl-Klabes1,2, Christian Olendrowitz1, Tim Salditt1,2, and Sarah Köster1,2 — 1Institute for X-Ray Physics, University of Göttingen, Germany — 2Courant Research Centre Nano-Spectroscopy and X-Ray Imaging, University of Göttingen, Germany
The cytoskeleton of eukaryotic cells is a complex network of filamentous biopolymers, which gives cells their versatile shapes and specific mechanical properties. It mainly consists of three different types of filaments: actin filaments, microtubules and intermediate filaments. Keratin intermediate filaments mainly occur in epithelial cells, where they form about 100 nm thick bundles that are organized in a crosslinked network and provide these cells with a high tensile strength as well as the capability to withstand external stresses.
Our goal is to probe the native structure of keratin bundles in live eukaryotic SK8/K18 cells in a physiological environment. For this purpose we use X-ray diffraction with a nanofocused X-ray source, which enables us to achieve high-resolution structural information in combination with a non-destructive sample preparation. Nevertheless, to simplify the experimental set-up, first synchrotron experiments were performed on fixed and freeze-dried cells. High-resolution dark-field contrast image, where the cellular substructure is visible, were obtained and the analysis of single diffraction patterns obtained on keratin bundles showed oriented scattering corresponding to a high degree of orientation in the sample.