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Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii

Background: Mechanosensing of cells, particularly the cellular response to substrates with different elastic properties, has been discovered in recent years, but almost exclusively in mammalian cells. Much less attention has been paid to mechanosensing in other cell systems, such as in eukaryotic hu...

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Autores principales: Gutekunst, Sören B, Grabosch, Carsten, Kovalev, Alexander, Gorb, Stanislav N, Selhuber-Unkel, Christine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Beilstein-Institut 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4168941/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25247122
http://dx.doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.5.152
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author Gutekunst, Sören B
Grabosch, Carsten
Kovalev, Alexander
Gorb, Stanislav N
Selhuber-Unkel, Christine
author_facet Gutekunst, Sören B
Grabosch, Carsten
Kovalev, Alexander
Gorb, Stanislav N
Selhuber-Unkel, Christine
author_sort Gutekunst, Sören B
collection PubMed
description Background: Mechanosensing of cells, particularly the cellular response to substrates with different elastic properties, has been discovered in recent years, but almost exclusively in mammalian cells. Much less attention has been paid to mechanosensing in other cell systems, such as in eukaryotic human pathogens. Results: We report here on the influence of substrate stiffness on the adhesion of the human pathogen Acanthamoebae castellanii (A. castellanii). By comparing the cell adhesion area of A. castellanii trophozoites on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates with different Young’s moduli (4 kPa, 29 kPa, and 128 kPa), we find significant differences in cell adhesion area as a function of substrate stiffness. In particular, the cell adhesion area of A. castellanii increases with a decreasing Young’s modulus of the substrate. Conclusion: The dependence of A. castellanii adhesion on the elastic properties of the substrate is the first study suggesting a mechanosensory effect for a eukaryotic human pathogen. Interestingly, the main targets of A. castellanii infections in the human body are the eye and the brain, i.e., very soft environments. Thus, our study provides first hints towards the relevance of mechanical aspects for the pathogenicity of eukaryotic parasites.
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spelling pubmed-41689412014-09-22 Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii Gutekunst, Sören B Grabosch, Carsten Kovalev, Alexander Gorb, Stanislav N Selhuber-Unkel, Christine Beilstein J Nanotechnol Full Research Paper Background: Mechanosensing of cells, particularly the cellular response to substrates with different elastic properties, has been discovered in recent years, but almost exclusively in mammalian cells. Much less attention has been paid to mechanosensing in other cell systems, such as in eukaryotic human pathogens. Results: We report here on the influence of substrate stiffness on the adhesion of the human pathogen Acanthamoebae castellanii (A. castellanii). By comparing the cell adhesion area of A. castellanii trophozoites on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates with different Young’s moduli (4 kPa, 29 kPa, and 128 kPa), we find significant differences in cell adhesion area as a function of substrate stiffness. In particular, the cell adhesion area of A. castellanii increases with a decreasing Young’s modulus of the substrate. Conclusion: The dependence of A. castellanii adhesion on the elastic properties of the substrate is the first study suggesting a mechanosensory effect for a eukaryotic human pathogen. Interestingly, the main targets of A. castellanii infections in the human body are the eye and the brain, i.e., very soft environments. Thus, our study provides first hints towards the relevance of mechanical aspects for the pathogenicity of eukaryotic parasites. Beilstein-Institut 2014-08-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4168941/ /pubmed/25247122 http://dx.doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.5.152 Text en Copyright © 2014, Gutekunst et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0https://www.beilstein-journals.org/bjnano/termsThis is an Open Access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The license is subject to the Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology terms and conditions: (https://www.beilstein-journals.org/bjnano/terms)
spellingShingle Full Research Paper
Gutekunst, Sören B
Grabosch, Carsten
Kovalev, Alexander
Gorb, Stanislav N
Selhuber-Unkel, Christine
Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii
title Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii
title_full Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii
title_fullStr Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii
title_full_unstemmed Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii
title_short Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii
title_sort influence of the pdms substrate stiffness on the adhesion of acanthamoeba castellanii
topic Full Research Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4168941/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25247122
http://dx.doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.5.152
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