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Mechanics of spreading cells probed by atomic force microscopy

Cellular adhesion and motility are fundamental processes in biological systems such as morphogenesis and tissue homeostasis. During these processes, cells heavily rely on the ability to deform and supply plasma membrane from pre-existing membrane reservoirs, allowing the cell to cope with substantia...

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Autores principales: Pietuch, Anna, Janshoff, Andreas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3728925/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23864554
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsob.130084
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author Pietuch, Anna
Janshoff, Andreas
author_facet Pietuch, Anna
Janshoff, Andreas
author_sort Pietuch, Anna
collection PubMed
description Cellular adhesion and motility are fundamental processes in biological systems such as morphogenesis and tissue homeostasis. During these processes, cells heavily rely on the ability to deform and supply plasma membrane from pre-existing membrane reservoirs, allowing the cell to cope with substantial morphological changes. While morphological changes during single cell adhesion and spreading are well characterized, the accompanying alterations in cellular mechanics are scarcely addressed. Using the atomic force microscope, we measured changes in cortical and plasma membrane mechanics during the transition from early adhesion to a fully spread cell. During the initial adhesion step, we found that tremendous changes occur in cortical and membrane tension as well as in membrane area. Monitoring the spreading progress by means of force measurements over 2.5 h reveals that cortical and membrane tension become constant at the expense of excess membrane area. This was confirmed by fluorescence microscopy, which shows a rougher plasma membrane of cells in suspension compared with spread ones, allowing the cell to draw excess membrane from reservoirs such as invaginations or protrusions while attaching to the substrate and forming a first contact zone. Concretely, we found that cell spreading is initiated by a transient drop in tension, which is compensated by a decrease in excess area. Finally, all mechanical parameters become almost constant although morphological changes continue. Our study shows how a single cell responds to alterations in membrane tension by adjusting its overall membrane area. Interference with cytoskeletal integrity, membrane tension and excess surface area by administration of corresponding small molecular inhibitors leads to perturbations of the spreading process.
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spelling pubmed-37289252013-08-06 Mechanics of spreading cells probed by atomic force microscopy Pietuch, Anna Janshoff, Andreas Open Biol Research Cellular adhesion and motility are fundamental processes in biological systems such as morphogenesis and tissue homeostasis. During these processes, cells heavily rely on the ability to deform and supply plasma membrane from pre-existing membrane reservoirs, allowing the cell to cope with substantial morphological changes. While morphological changes during single cell adhesion and spreading are well characterized, the accompanying alterations in cellular mechanics are scarcely addressed. Using the atomic force microscope, we measured changes in cortical and plasma membrane mechanics during the transition from early adhesion to a fully spread cell. During the initial adhesion step, we found that tremendous changes occur in cortical and membrane tension as well as in membrane area. Monitoring the spreading progress by means of force measurements over 2.5 h reveals that cortical and membrane tension become constant at the expense of excess membrane area. This was confirmed by fluorescence microscopy, which shows a rougher plasma membrane of cells in suspension compared with spread ones, allowing the cell to draw excess membrane from reservoirs such as invaginations or protrusions while attaching to the substrate and forming a first contact zone. Concretely, we found that cell spreading is initiated by a transient drop in tension, which is compensated by a decrease in excess area. Finally, all mechanical parameters become almost constant although morphological changes continue. Our study shows how a single cell responds to alterations in membrane tension by adjusting its overall membrane area. Interference with cytoskeletal integrity, membrane tension and excess surface area by administration of corresponding small molecular inhibitors leads to perturbations of the spreading process. The Royal Society 2013-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3728925/ /pubmed/23864554 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsob.130084 Text en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ © 2013 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research
Pietuch, Anna
Janshoff, Andreas
Mechanics of spreading cells probed by atomic force microscopy
title Mechanics of spreading cells probed by atomic force microscopy
title_full Mechanics of spreading cells probed by atomic force microscopy
title_fullStr Mechanics of spreading cells probed by atomic force microscopy
title_full_unstemmed Mechanics of spreading cells probed by atomic force microscopy
title_short Mechanics of spreading cells probed by atomic force microscopy
title_sort mechanics of spreading cells probed by atomic force microscopy
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3728925/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23864554
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsob.130084
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