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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 7: Posters: Cell adhesion, mechanics and migration
BP 7.20: Poster
Monday, March 31, 2014, 17:30–19:30, P3
Growth Dynamics of Cellular Clusters on Elastic Substrates — •Philipp Linke1, Carina Wollnik1, Sara Kaliman2, Damir Vurnek2, Ana-Sunčana Smith2, and Florian Rehfeldt1 — 13rd Institute of Physics - Biophysics, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany — 2Institute for Theoretical Physics and Cluster of Excellence: Engineering of Advanced Materials, University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Cellular motility is an important factor in many processes like wound healing, tissue formation, and immune reactions. Cells adhere to their environment using focal adhesions and react to the stiffness of their surroundings. To study the response of a distinct cell type to different stiffness we use collagen-I coated polyacrylamide (PA) gels with well-controlled stiffness to mimic different environments.
MDCK II cells have proven to be very useful as model system for endothelial morphogenesis. When growing on a flat surface, these cells usually form a cluster monolayer after a short time. We found recently that soft matrices mimicking the native mechanical conditions of kidney also lead to three dimensional structures. The formation dynamics of these structures is controlled by cellular contractility and the balance of cell-cell and cell-matrix contacts. We use Lifeact-RFP to visualize actin filaments in living cells to elucidate the growth dynamics of clusters of MDCK II cells. We are using the open source software Micro Manager in combination with a motorized xy-stage and a heating and CO2 incubation system to do parallel live cell microscopy of several clusters in physiological conditions.