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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 26: Biomaterials and Biopolymers (joint session BP/CPP)

CPP 26.6: Talk

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 11:00–11:15, H 1028

Mechanically biomimetic hydrogel suggests fundamental viscoelastic constraints in intracellular mechanics — •Dorian Marx, Bart Eduard Vos, Till Moritz Münker, and Timo Betz — Drittes Physikalisches Institut - Biophysik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

The currently best fitting model for the viscoelastic mechanical properties of cellular cytoplasm lacks a connection to physical parameters. To establish this connection, we find and utilize a viscoelastic polyacrylamide-based hydrogel with cytoplasm-like mechanical properties. The variation of experimental parameters reveals the connection of their physical interpretations to the mechanical outcome of the measurement. The used viscoelastic hydrogel enables the comparison of different measurement methods spanning length scales of micrometers (optical tweezers) to centimeters (rheometer) and can serve as a calibration material that is neither ideally elastic nor ideally viscous. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of cellular and hydrogel data uncovers striking correlations of model parameters that closely match between the chemically and physically distinct materials. The results motivate further investigations into the theoretical reasons for the correlations and applications in building artifical cells.

Keywords: Intracellular mechanics; Rheology; Hydrogels; Polyacrylamide