Lateral shear forces applied to cells with single elastic micropillars to influence focal adhesion dynamics.

Focal adhesions (FAs) are important adhesion sites between eukaryotic cells and the extracellular matrix, their size depending on the locally applied force. To quantitatively study the mechanosensitivity of FAs, we induce their growth and disassembly by varying the distribution of intracellular stress. We present a novel method for micromanipulation of living cells to explore the dynamics of focal adhesion (FA) assembly under force. Fibroblasts are sheared laterally to their adhesion surface with single PDMS micropillars in order to apply laterally stretch or compression to focal adhesions. This allows for measuring the shear force exerted by the micropillar and correlates it with FA length and growth velocity. Furthermore, we analyze the resulting dynamics of FA molecules (paxillin) and compare intensity profiles along FAs before and after the application of external force. The responses of stretched and relaxed FAs differ fundamentally: relaxed and compressed FAs disassemble isotropically and show no length variation while stretched FAs grow unisotropically in the direction of the applied force and show protein influx only at their front.

Induction of cell polarization and migration by a gradient of nanoscale variations in adhesive ligand spacing.

Cell interactions with adhesive surfaces play a vital role in the regulation of cell proliferation, viability, and differentiation, and affect multiple biological processes. Since cell adhesion depends mainly on the nature and density of the adhesive ligand molecules, spatial molecular patterning, which enables the modulation of adhesion receptor clustering, might affect both the structural and the signaling activities of the adhesive interaction. We herein show that cells plated on surfaces that present a molecularly defined spacing gradient of an integrin RGD ligand can sense small but consistent differences in adhesive ligand spacing of about 1 nm across the cell diameter, which is approximately 61 mum when the spacing includes 70 nm. Consequently, these positional cues induce cell polarization and initiate cell migration and signaling. We propose that differential positional clustering of the integrin transmembrane receptors is used by cells for exploring and interpreting their environment, at high spatial sensitivity.

Propagation of mechanical stress through the actin cytoskeleton toward focal adhesions: model and experiment.

We investigate both theoretically and experimentally how stress is propagated through the actin cytoskeleton of adherent cells and consequentially distributed at sites of focal adhesions (FAs). The actin cytoskeleton is modeled as a two-dimensional cable network with different lattice geometries. Both prestrain, resulting from actomyosin contractility, and central application of external force, lead to finite forces at the FAs that are largely independent of the lattice geometry, but strongly depend on the exact spatial distribution of the FAs. The simulation results compare favorably with experiments with adherent fibroblasts onto which lateral force is exerted using a microfabricated pillar. For elliptical cells, central application of external force along the long axis leads to two large stress regions located obliquely opposite to the pulling direction. For elliptical cells pulled along the short axis as well as for circular cells, there is only one region of large stress opposite to the direction of pull. If in the computer simulations FAs are allowed to rupture under force for elliptically elongated and circular cell shapes, then morphologies arise which are typical for migrating fibroblasts and keratocytes, respectively. The same effect can be obtained also by internally generated force, suggesting a mechanism by which cells can control their migration morphologies.

Mach cone in a shallow granular fluid.

We study the V -shaped wake (Mach cone) formed by a cylindrical rod moving through a thin, vertically vibrated granular layer. The wake, analogous to a shock (hydraulic jump) in shallow water, appears for rod velocities vR greater than a critical velocity c . We measure the half angle theta; of the wake as a function of vR and layer depth h . The angle satisfies the Mach relation, sin theta=c/vR , where c= square root of gh , even for h as small as one-particle diameter.