Regensburg 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 31: Cell adhesion and migration, multicellular systems II

BP 31.6: Vortrag

Freitag, 5. April 2019, 11:00–11:15, H10

Cortical Actin Contractility of Single Suspended Cells Might Determine Tissue Surface Tension — •Enrico Warmt, Steffen Grosser, Erik Morawetz, and Josef Käs — University of Leipzig, Faculty of Physics and Earth Sciences, Peter Debye Institute, Soft Matter Physics Division, Linnéstr. 5, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

Here, we investigate suspended cells regarding active contractility, lacking stress fibers and adhesion points. Epithelial cells assemble a strong actomyosin cortex providing pretension forming round cells and exhibiting more contractile behavior. Contrastly, mesenchymal cells behave much less contractile. In tissue development experiments, epithelial suspended cells rapidly form stable cell-cell contacts, which is accompanied with rearrangement of their actomyosin cortices building up a collective actomyosin rim. This collective actomyosin rim envelops whole cell clusters visible in round shaped cell spheroids suggesting high tissue surface tension. In contrast, suspended mesenchymal cells do not form stable cell-cell contacts. No collective actomyosin rim forms and envelops cell clusters, resulting in rough cell spheroid surfaces, suggesting low tissue surface tension. Demixing experiments, where we observe segregation behavior of epithelial and mesenchymal cells, show that epithelial cells form always a compact inner core, supporting the theory of expressing higher tissue surface tension. Altogether we hypothesize, that the contractile potential, in particular of epithelial cells, is highly correlated with the ability to rearrange actomyosin assembly. Furthermore, cells contractile potential is thus a driving force in tissue development and essential in tissue integrity.