Stress fibers in cells in situ: immunofluorescence visualization with antiactin, antimyosin, and anti-alpha-actinin.

Abstract

Stress fiber-like patterns are visualized by indirect immunofluorescence in scleroblasts (fibroblasts) in situ on the scale of the common goldfish, Carassius auratus, using an affinity-purified antiactin, antimyosin, and anti-alpha-actinin . These fibers demonstrate the classical convergent and parallel patterns exhibited by stress fibers in tissue culture cells. Because the dimensions, the composition, and the pattern of distribution of these cytoplasmic fibers correspond well with those of stress fibers in cultured cells, we will call these fibers stress fibers also . The staining patterns with anti-alpha-actinin and antimyosin along the stress fibers often reveal a periodicity of 1-2 Am, identical to that found in cells in vitro. The majority of scleroblasts do not exhibit stress fiber staining and they are specifically located in the central regions of the scale. Stress fibers are present in scleroblasts residing on or near the edges or radical ridges of the scale . They are consistently orientated perpendicular to these structures ; however, unlike microtubules, stress fibers show no co-alignment with collagen fibers of the scale . The finding that stress fibers are Icoated in regions of the scale more subject to shearing forces may indicate their role in increased cellular adhesion to the substratum .

A thermodynamically motivated model for stress-fiber reorganization

“…Continuum description of stress-fibers within a cell Contractile stress-fibers comprising proteins such as -actinin, actin, myosin and tropomyosin and showing an alternating periodic arrangement similar to that seen in muscle sarcomeres have been observed in a range of cells including endothelial cells (De Bruyn and Cho 1974), retinal cells (Gordon et al 1982) and fibroblasts (Byers and Fujiwara 1982). We use these observations to describe the structure of stress-fibers with a view to developing a continuum model for their re-organization.…”

Quantitative Analysis of Cortical Actin Filaments during Polar Body Formation in Starfish Oocytes

“…Using fluorescentlylabeled phallotoxins, quantitative analysis of the actin amounts by dissecting the cortex from the total cell has recently been applied to understand the dynamic changes in the cortical actin (Satoh and Hamaguchi, 2000). This method is more useful than the methods where anti-actin antibody and fluorescently-labeled actin are used to investigate actin distribution in living and fixed cells (Byers and Fujiwara, 1982;Hamaguchi and Mabuchi, 1988) because these latter methods not only visualize filamentous actin but also globular monomeric actin.…”

A theoretical model for F-actin remodeling in vascular smooth muscle cells subjected to cyclic stretch

“…Since actin filaments make bundles to bear intracellular stresses (Byers and Fujiwara 1982;Zimerman et al, 2004), we used force-strain data from single F-actin bundles (i.e., stress fibers) isolated from vascular smooth muscle cells (Deguchi et al, 2006) to determine the material parameters c and c 1 (Eqs. 7 and 8).…”