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Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Nanomechanics of Suspended Fibroblast by Point-like Anchors Reveals Cytoskeleton Formation

Sabato Fusco, Pasquale Memmolo, Lisa Miccio, Francesco Merola, Martina Mugnano, Antonio Paciello, Pietro Ferraro and Paolo Antonio Netti

In an attempt to better elucidate the material-cytoskeleton crosstalk during the initial stage of cell adhesion, here we report how suspended cells anchored to point-like bonds are able to assemble their cytoskeleton when subjected to mechanical stress. The combination of holographic optical tweezers and digital holography gives cells footholds for the adhesion and mechanical stimulation and, at the same time, acts as a label-free, force-revealing system over time, detecting the cell nanomechanical response in the pN range. To confirm the formation of cytoskeleton structures after the stimulation, a fluorescence image system was added as a control. The strategy here proposed portends broad applicability to investigate the correlation between the forces applied to the cells and their cytoskeleton assembly process in this or other complex configurations with multiple anchor points.

DOI

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