Physical probing of cells

Rehfeldt, Florian; Schmidt, Christoph F.

doi:10.1088/1361-6463/aa8aa6

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 61 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Micro-scale tools such as atomic force microscopes (AFM) have indeed been essential for the mechanical characterization not only of tissues and stem-cell niches on cellular and subcellular scales but also the gels used to mimic them (49). AFM remains a workhorse for measuring substrate mechanics on the cellular scale, and a variety of techniques are now available to also measure cellular forces and displacements (76).…”

Section: Introduction To Mechanosensingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stem Cell Differentiation is Regulated by Extracellular Matrix Mechanics

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Stem cells mechanosense the stiffness of their microenvironment, which impacts differentiation. Although tissue hydration anti-correlates with stiffness, extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness is clearly transduced into gene expression via adhesion and cytoskeleton proteins that tune fates. Cytoskeletal reorganization of ECM can create heterogeneity and influence fates, with fibrosis being one extreme.

show abstract

Section: Introduction To Mechanosensingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stem Cell Differentiation is Regulated by Extracellular Matrix Mechanics

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Over the years, various techniques have been developed to characterize the mechanical properties of cells in vitro and to understand how cells sense and probe their environment. These techniques, and their further development, for studying cell-cell adhesions have been described in detail in recent reviews [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] . In most methodical approaches, like atomic force microscopy 14,15 and dual-pipette aspiration 16,17 , the detachment forces of cells were studied in a suspended form to avoid cell-ECM interactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cell-Cell Separation Device: measurement of intercellular detachment forces

Eckert

Matylitskaya

Partel

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Whether at the intramolecular or cellular scale in organisms, cell-cell adhesion adapt to external mechanical cues arising from the static environment of cells and from dynamic interactions between neighboring cells. Cell-cell adhesions need to resist detachment forces to secure the integrity and internal organization of organisms. In the past, various techniques have been developed to characterize adhesion properties of molecules and cells in vitro, and to understand how cells sense and probe their environment. Atomic force microscopy and dual-pipette aspiration, where cells are mainly present in suspension, are common methods for studying detachment forces of cell-cell adhesions. How cell-cell adhesion forces are developed for adherent and environment-adapted cells, however, is less clear. Here, we designed the Cell-Cell Separation Device (CC-SD), a microstructured substrate that measures both intercellular forces and external stresses of cells towards the matrix. The design is based on micropillar arrays originally designed for cell traction-force measurements. We designed PDMS micropillar-blocks, to which cells could adhere and be able to connect to each other across the gap. Controlled stretching of the whole substrate changed the distance between blocks and increased gap size. That allowed us to apply strains to cell-cell contacts, eventually leading to cell-cell adhesion detachment, which was measured by pillar deflections. The CC-SD provided an increase of the gap between the blocks of up to 2.4-fold, which was sufficient to separate substrate-attached cells with fully developed F-actin network. Simultaneously measured pillar deflections allowed us to address cellular response to the intercellular strain applied. The CC-SD thus opens up possibilities for the analysis of intercellular force detachments and sheds light on the robustness of cell-cell adhesions in dynamic processes in tissue development.

show abstract

“…Therefore, we will not discuss techniques such as magnetic tweezers 11,12 , optical tweezers 13,14 , acoustic tweezers 15 , atomic force microscopy 16 , micropipette aspiration 17 , microindentation 18 , microplate actuators 19 , Brillouin microscopy 20,21 , or tissue dissection and relaxation 22 . The reader is referred to excellent recent reviews on these techniques [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring mechanical stress in living tissues

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Living tissues are active multifunctional materials capable of generating, sensing, withstanding and responding to mechanical stress. These capabilities enable tissues to adopt complex shapes during development, to sustain those shapes during homeostasis, and to restore them during healing and regeneration. Abnormal stress is associated with a broad range of pathologies, including developmental defects, inflammatory diseases, tumor growth and metastasis. Here we review techniques that measure mechanical stress in living tissues with cellular and subcellular resolution. We begin with 2D techniques to map stress in cultured cell monolayers, which provide the highest resolution and accessibility. These techniques include 2D traction microscopy, micro-pillar arrays, monolayer stress microscopy, and monolayer stretching between flexible cantilevers. We next focus on 3D traction microscopy and the micro-bulge test, which enable mapping forces in tissues cultured in 3D. Finally, we review techniques to measure stress in vivo, including servo-null methods for measuring luminal pressure, deformable inclusions, FRET sensors, laser ablation and computational methods for force inference. Whereas these techniques remain far from becoming everyday tools in biomedical laboratories, their rapid development is fostering key advances in the way we understand the role of mechanics in morphogenesis, homeostasis and disease.

show abstract

Physical probing of cells

Cited by 11 publications

References 61 publications

Stem Cell Differentiation is Regulated by Extracellular Matrix Mechanics

Stem Cell Differentiation is Regulated by Extracellular Matrix Mechanics

Cell-Cell Separation Device: measurement of intercellular detachment forces

Measuring mechanical stress in living tissues

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About