Berlin 2018 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 10: Postersession II

BP 10.26: Poster

Montag, 12. März 2018, 17:30–19:30, Poster C

Elastic beads as in vivo tension sensors — •Arne Hofemeier, Bernhard Wallmeyer, and Timo Betz — Institute of Cell Biology, ZMBE, University of Münster

Mechanical tension has recently been recognized as a key element to understand many biological processes such as cell fate determination or collective cell migration during embryogenesis. However, direct experimental access to determine tension in vivo in a non-destructive way remains a major challenge. Here, we present a novel experimental approach that allows direct measurement of stress inside in vitro and in vivo tissue. By injecting fluorescent polyacrylamide (PAA) beads of known size and elasticity in the tissue, we are able to measure the deformation of their surface and obtain the resulting displacement vector. Solving the inverse elastic problem yields an approximation of the stress field inside the tissue. Furthermore, we show two applications of this novel technique. Firstly, PAA beads are injected into mouse muscles to examine forces exerted during muscle contraction on muscle stem cells, a cell type known to respond to changes of mechanical properties. Secondly, PAA beads are injected into zebrafish embryos to investigate the role of tissue stress in collective cell migration during embryogenesis.