Berlin 2015 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 16: Posters: Cell adhesion, mechanics and migration

BP 16.26: Poster

Montag, 16. März 2015, 17:30–19:30, Poster A

Cell response to lateral constraints — •Andreas Müller and Tilo Pompe — Universität Leipzig, Institute of Biochemistry, Johannisallee 21-23, 04109 Leipzig, Germany

Living cells are subjected to a plethora of exogenous cues which encompass chemical agents as well as physical quantities. One external regulator of cell fate that is often overlooked is spatial constraint, which is omnipresent in multicellular arrangements.

We show that a bimodal behavior for human umbilical vein endothelial cells, elicited by lateral constraints and indicated by changes in actin stress fiber spacing [1], persists despite changes in mechanical and biochemical parameters. We use soft hydrogel matrices micropatterned with adhesion proteins as substrates for biochemical inhibition assays and as substrates for cell traction force measurements of laterally confined cells. We find that inhibition of myosin activity does not lead to a change in bimodal behavior. Furthermore, the bimodal stress fiber behavior is also present in human dermal fibroblasts, hinting at geometry as a general regulator for cell behavior.

[1] Müller, A., Meyer, J., Paumer, T., Pompe, T. Cytoskeletal Transition in Patterned Cells Correlates with Interfacial Energy Model. Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 2444-2452.