Regensburg 2025 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 17: Poster Session II

BP 17.48: Poster

Dienstag, 18. März 2025, 18:00–20:30, P4

Investigating cell membrane tension — •Tina Boric^{1, 2}, Julia Butzke^{1, 2}, Eva Kreysing^{2, 3}, and Kristian Franze^{1, 2, 3} — ¹Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin, Erlangen, Germany — ²Institute of Medical Physics and Microtissue Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany — ³Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Cellular membranes are known to change their mechanical properties in response to external and internal mechanical stimuli, such as shear forces and changes in tissue stiffness. Membrane tension contributes to the transduction of these mechanical signals into intracellular responses via mechanosensitive ion channels. However, how and if a change in tissue stiffness affects the surface mechanics of the cell, which in turn would contribute to the activation of mechanosensitive ion channels, is not yet known. We are investigating the dependence of the effective membrane tension of HEK 293T cells on the expression levels of the mechanosensor Piezo1 using optical tweezers. Furthermore, we are comparing tether forces of cells grown on compliant custom-made substrates of biologically relevant stiffness. We also expose the cells to different pharmacological treatments that primarily affect the actin cortex to investigate how membrane-to-cortex attachment affects tether forces. Ultimately, our aim is to understand how changes in membrane tension lead to the activation of Piezo1. Our work will contribute to the understanding of how mechanosensitive ion channels are gated, which may have important implications for drug design in the future.

Keywords: Membrane tension; Optical Tweezers; Cytoskeleton; AFM; Compliant substrates