Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 32: Cell Adhesion and Mechanics
BP 32.3: Talk
Friday, March 15, 2013, 10:00–10:15, H43
The influence of substrate stiffness on integrin mediated cell properties — •Maja Gulic1, Thomas Kerst1, 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 integrin expression on cellular force generation, we used cell traction force microscopy. We fabricated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micropost arrays via photolithography. We designed microposts with different height and diameter to vary the spring constant. Measuring the deflection of a micropost during adhesion of a cell made it possible to calculate the cellular force. We show differences between the cell types on the same array type as well as for the same cell type on different micropost forms.