Berlin 2015 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 16: Posters: Cell adhesion, mechanics and migration
BP 16.2: Poster
Monday, March 16, 2015, 17:30–19:30, Poster A
Dynamics of blood platelet spreading on elastic substrates — •Aishwarya Paknikar1, Rabea Sandmann1, Noam Nisenholz2, Assaf Zemel2, and Sarah Köster1 — 11Institute for X-Ray Physics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany — 22Institute of Dental Sciences and Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Platelets, essential for repairing of damaged blood vessels spread at the site of injury and impressively rearrange their acto-myosin cytoskeleton. In vivo, platelets function in a variety of mechanical environments ranging from soft to stiff tissues. The mechanical response of platelets to such different environments is still elusive. Hence, we investigate the spreading dynamics of single platelets on elastic (Esub in the physiological range of 1-100 kPa) polyacrylamide (PAA) gels. We observe that the final platelet spread area increases with increasing values of Esub and the most pronounced sensitivity to stiffness lies below 40 kPa. The time-dependent platelet spread area curves on soft substrates show various irregular spreading profiles, which we classify as monotonic, non-monotonic and damped oscillatory, whereas the spreading profiles on the stiff substrates are majorly regular and monotonic. We present an elastic theory, which predicts that these different spreading profiles of platelets arise due to the different timescales of the myosin activity response. We characterize the spreading by analyzing the temporal evolution of the spread area and perimeter and aim at building a mechanical model for platelet dynamics on a single-cell level.