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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 7: Posters: Cell adhesion, mechanics and migration

BP 7.34: Poster

Montag, 31. März 2014, 17:30–19:30, P3

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, Germany — ²Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, 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. In addition we manipulated components of the force generation apparatus as well as the extracellular matrix with resulting differences in the cellular forces.