Berlin 2018 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 10: Postersession II

BP 10.38: Poster

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

Dynamics of actin stress fiber patterns in laterally confined cells — •Andreas Müller and Tilo Pompe — Universität Leipzig, Institute of Biochemistry, Johannisalle 21-23, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

Cell shape and function are inseparably linked. Cell shape can be regulated intracellularly by structural proteins or extracellularly by adaption to the surroundings. In this way, the extracellular geometry can be used to manipulate cell function.

We use glass substrates and soft polyacrylamide hydrogels that are micro-structured with stripe-like patterns to study the adaptation of cells to adhesion geometry. Isolated HUVECS are studied for several hours in order to correlate the their morphology, the reorganization of their actin cytoskeletons, and the dynamics of cell traction forces in response to lateral constraint. Current work focusses on live-cell imaging to reveal stress fiber dynamics and concurrent traction forces. We found that aligned stress fibers in polarized cellssmove inward, perpendicular to their orientation and the direction of main traction forces. In addition, the directionality and magnitude of traction forc-es are strongly correlated to cell shape and actin cytoskeleton pattern with an overall dependence on the degree of confinement.

Overall, our setup allows us to quantitatively analyze in a time-resolved manner the cell's morphological and mechanical adaption to spatial confinement in correlation to the actin cytoskeletal components as the main contributors to the force homeostasis. By that, we aim to contribute to elucidate the mechanisms behind the mutual relationship between cell shape and function.