Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 24: Posters: Physics of Cells

BP 24.25: Poster

Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 17:30–19:30, Poster C

Estimation of Local Cellular Tension with Active Cable Models — Philip Guthardt Torres¹, •Jérôme Soiné¹, Christoph Brand¹, Jonathan Stricker², Venkat Maruthamuthu², Patrick Oakes², Margaret Gardel², and Ulrich S. Schwarz¹ — ¹Bioquant and Institute for Theoretical Physics, Heidelberg University, Germany — ²Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, University of Chicago, USA

The ability to generate intracellular tension is essential for adhesion-dependent tissue cells, allowing them to actively probe and adapt to their mechanical environment. Traction force microscopy on planar elastic substrates has been successfully implemented to reconstruct the cellular traction field, but the correlation with intracellular tension states is largely unexplored. We have developed a procedure to estimate intracellular tension from elastic substrate data by minimizing the difference to the predictions of a theoretical model based on active cable networks. This model has been successfully used before to predict cell shape on micropatterned substrates. We now have extended it to describe not only contractile networks, but also various types of contractile bundles commonly observed in adherent cells. Contractile models are generated from images of adherent cells by segmenting cell shape and actin structures. Subsequent computer simulation of network contraction and parameter optimization allows us to estimate the most likely distribution of tension over the various contractile structures. In the future, our predictions might be compared to experimental results from laser cutting or force-sensitive fluorescent probes.