Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 26: Posters - Cell Adhesion
BP 26.1: Poster
Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 14:00–16:00, P2-EG
Fracture test of epithelial monolayers — •Dave Ahrens1, Georg Dreissen1, Matthias Rübsam2, Bernd Hoffmann1, Wolfgang Ziegler3, Carien Niessen2, and Rudolf Merkel1 — 1Institute of Complex Systems, ICS-7: Biomechanics, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany — 2Department of Dermatology, Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany — 3Hannover Medical School, Dept. of Paediatric Kidney, Liver and Metabolic Diseases, 30625 Hannover, Germany
One vital function of epithelial tissue is providing a physical barrier against high mechanical loads in order to protect underlying tissues. Due to experimental limitations for mechanical characterizations of cell layers we developed a monolayer cell-sheet model on highly elastic silicone rubber chambers. These chambers allow single cell and cell sheet straining by 150% and more in single as well as cyclic tensile straining events. Furthermore, cell-cell contact formation and epithelial cell sheet maturation was induced by Ca2+ for different time periods before stretching. We could show that epithelial cells completely change their mechanical behavior in response to strain with increasing incubation times in Ca*+ containing media. Previously acting as a system whose components respond largely independent from each other, cells mechanically function as unit after sheet maturation. Stretching epithelial cells lacking vinculin as a component of cellular adhesion could prove the importance of vinculin for mechanical resistance in cell-matrix adhesions on single cell level while vinculin KO cell sheets were rarely affected in their mechanical integrity.