1
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Zanotelli MR, Miller JP, Wang W, Ortiz I, Tahon E, Bordeleau F, Reinhart-King CA. Tension directs cancer cell migration over fiber alignment through energy minimization. Biomaterials 2024; 311:122682. [PMID: 38959532 DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2024.122682] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2023] [Revised: 06/06/2024] [Accepted: 06/23/2024] [Indexed: 07/05/2024]
Abstract
Cell migration during many fundamental biological processes including metastasis requires cells to traverse tissue with heterogeneous mechanical cues that direct migration as well as determine force and energy requirements for motility. However, the influence of discrete structural and mechanical cues on migration remains challenging to determine as they are often coupled. Here, we decouple the pro-invasive cues of collagen fiber alignment and tension to study their individual impact on migration. When presented with both cues, cells preferentially travel in the axis of tension against fiber alignment. Computational and experimental data show applying tension perpendicular to alignment increases potential energy stored within collagen fibers, lowering requirements for cell-induced matrix deformation and energy usage during migration compared to motility in the direction of fiber alignment. Energy minimization directs migration trajectory, and tension can facilitate migration against fiber alignment. These findings provide a conceptual understanding of bioenergetics during migration through a fibrous matrix.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew R Zanotelli
- Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA
| | - Joseph P Miller
- Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
| | - Wenjun Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA
| | - Ismael Ortiz
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA
| | - Elise Tahon
- CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center (Oncology Division), Université Laval Cancer Research Center, Centre de Recherche en Organogénèse Expérimentale de l'Université Laval/LOEX, Québec, G1R 3S3, Canada
| | - Francois Bordeleau
- CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center (Oncology Division), Université Laval Cancer Research Center, Centre de Recherche en Organogénèse Expérimentale de l'Université Laval/LOEX, Québec, G1R 3S3, Canada; Département de Biologie Moléculaire, de Biochimie Médicale et de Pathologie, Université Laval, Québec, Canada, G1V 0A6.
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2
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Rajput SS, Singh SB, Subramanyam D, Patil S. Soft glassy rheology of single cells with pathogenic protein aggregates. SOFT MATTER 2024; 20:6266-6274. [PMID: 39054893 DOI: 10.1039/d4sm00595c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/27/2024]
Abstract
A correlation between the mechanical properties of cells and various diseases has been emerging in recent years. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been widely used to measure a single cell's apparent Young's modulus by treating it as a fully elastic object. More recently, quantitative characterization of the complete viscoelasticity of single cells has become possible. We performed AFM-based nano-indentation experiments on hemocytes isolated from third instar larvae to determine their viscoelasticity and found that live hemocytes, like many other cells, follow a scale-free power-law rheology (PLR) akin to soft glasses. Further, we examined the changes in the rheological response of hemocytes in the presence of pathogenic protein aggregates known to cause neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disorder and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Our results show that cells lose their fluidity and appear more solid-like in the presence of certain aggregates, in a manner correlated to actin reorganization. More solid-like cells also display reduced intracellular transport through clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME). However, the cell's rheology remains largely unaffected and is similar to that of wild-type (WT) hemocytes, if aggregates do not perturb the actin organization and CME. Moreover, the fluid-like nature was significantly recovered when actin organization was rescued by overexpressing specific actin interacting proteins or chaperones. Our study, for the first time, underscores a direct correlation between parameters governing glassy dynamics, actin organization and CME.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shatruhan Singh Rajput
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune 411008, India
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, 80 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1GA, UK
| | - Surya Bansi Singh
- National Centre for Cell Science, SP Pune University Campus, Pune 411007, India.
- SP Pune University, Pune 411007, India
| | - Deepa Subramanyam
- National Centre for Cell Science, SP Pune University Campus, Pune 411007, India.
| | - Shivprasad Patil
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune 411008, India.
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3
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Medina-Ruíz GI, Medina-Ruiz AI, Morán J. Fraping: A computational tool for detecting slight differences in fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) data for actin polymerization analysis. Microsc Res Tech 2024; 87:1541-1551. [PMID: 38425281 DOI: 10.1002/jemt.24533] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2023] [Revised: 02/13/2024] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024]
Abstract
Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) is a laser method of light microscopy to evaluate the rapid movement of fluorescent molecules. To have a more reliable approach to analyze data from FRAP, we designed Fraping, a free access R library to data analysis obtained from FRAP. Unlike other programs, Fraping has a new form of analyzing curves of FRAP using statistical analysis based on the average curve difference. To evaluate our library, we analyzed the differences of actin polymerization in real time between dendrites and secondary neurites of cultured neuron transfected with LifeAct to track F-actin changes of neurites. We found that Fraping provided greater sensitivity than the conventional model using mobile fraction analysis. Likewise, this approach allowed us to normalize the fluorescence to the size area of interest and adjust data curves choosing the best parametric model. In addition, this library was supplemented with data simulation to have a more significant enrichment for the analysis behavior. We concluded that Fraping is a method that reduces bias when analyzing two data groups as compared with the conventional methods. This method also allows the users to choose a more suitable analysis approach according to their requirements. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Fraping is a new programming tool to analyze FRAP data to normalize fluorescence recovery curves. The conventional method uses one-point analysis, and the new one compares all the points to define the similarity of the fluorescence recovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriela Itzetl Medina-Ruíz
- División de Neurociencias, Instituto de Fisiología Celular, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
- Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Unidad de Posgrado, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City, Mexico
| | | | - Julio Morán
- División de Neurociencias, Instituto de Fisiología Celular, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
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4
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Wang W, Zanotelli MR, Sabo LN, Fabiano ED, Goldfield NM, Le C, Techasiriwan EP, Lopez S, Berestesky ED, Reinhart-King CA. Collagen density regulates tip-stalk cell rearrangement during angiogenesis via cellular bioenergetics. APL Bioeng 2024; 8:026120. [PMID: 38872716 PMCID: PMC11170328 DOI: 10.1063/5.0195249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 06/15/2024] Open
Abstract
Tumor vasculature plays a crucial role in tumor progression, affecting nutrition and oxygen transportation as well as the efficiency of drug delivery. While targeting pro-angiogenic growth factors has been a significant focus for treating tumor angiogenesis, recent studies indicate that metabolism also plays a role in regulating endothelial cell behavior. Like cancer cells, tumor endothelial cells undergo metabolic changes that regulate rearrangement for tip cell position during angiogenesis. Our previous studies have shown that altered mechanical properties of the collagen matrix regulate angiogenesis and can promote a tumor vasculature phenotype. Here, we examine the effect of collagen density on endothelial cell tip-stalk cell rearrangement and cellular energetics during angiogenic sprouting. We find that increased collagen density leads to an elevated energy state and an increased rate of tip-stalk cell switching, which is correlated with the energy state of the cells. Tip cells exhibit higher glucose uptake than stalk cells, and inhibition of glucose uptake revealed that invading sprouts rely on glucose to meet elevated energy requirements for invasion in dense matrices. This work helps to elucidate the complex interplay between the mechanical microenvironment and the endothelial cell metabolic status during angiogenesis, which could have important implications for developing new anti-cancer therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenjun Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA
| | | | - Lindsey N. Sabo
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA
| | - Emily D. Fabiano
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA
| | - Natalie M. Goldfield
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA
| | - Chloe Le
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA
| | - Elle P. Techasiriwan
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA
| | - Santiago Lopez
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA
| | - Emily D. Berestesky
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA
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5
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Chandrasekaran A, Graham K, Stachowiak JC, Rangamani P. Kinetic trapping organizes actin filaments within liquid-like protein droplets. Nat Commun 2024; 15:3139. [PMID: 38605007 PMCID: PMC11009352 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46726-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Several actin-binding proteins (ABPs) phase separate to form condensates capable of curating the actin network shapes. Here, we use computational modeling to understand the principles of actin network organization within VASP condensate droplets. Our simulations reveal that the different actin shapes, namely shells, rings, and mixture states are highly dependent on the kinetics of VASP-actin interactions, suggesting that they arise from kinetic trapping. Specifically, we show that reducing the residence time of VASP on actin filaments reduces degree of bundling, thereby promoting assembly of shells rather than rings. We validate the model predictions experimentally using a VASP-mutant with decreased bundling capability. Finally, we investigate the ring opening within deformed droplets and found that the sphere-to-ellipsoid transition is favored under a wide range of filament lengths while the ellipsoid-to-rod transition is only permitted when filaments have a specific range of lengths. Our findings highlight key mechanisms of actin organization within phase-separated ABPs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aravind Chandrasekaran
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0411, USA
| | - Kristin Graham
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | - Jeanne C Stachowiak
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
| | - Padmini Rangamani
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0411, USA.
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6
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Sabri E, Brosseau C. Electromechanical interactions between cell membrane and nuclear envelope: Beyond the standard Schwan's model of biological cells. Bioelectrochemistry 2024; 155:108583. [PMID: 37883860 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioelechem.2023.108583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2023] [Revised: 10/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/02/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
We investigate little-appreciated features of the hierarchical core-shell (CS) models of the electrical, mechanical, and electromechanical interactions between the cell membrane (CM) and nuclear envelope (NE). We first consider a simple model of an individual cell based on a coupled resistor-capacitor (Schwan model (SM)) network and show that the CM, when exposed to ac electric fields, acts as a low pass filter while the NE acts as a wide and asymmetric bandpass filter. We provide a simplified calculation for characteristic time associated with the capacitive charging of the NE and parameterize its range of behavior. We furthermore observe several new features dealing with mechanical analogs of the SM based on elementary spring-damper combinations. The chief merit of these models is that they can predict creep compliance responses of an individual cell under static stress and their effective retardation time constants. Next, we use an alternative and a more accurate CS physical model solved by finite element simulations for which geometrical cell reshaping under electromechanical stress (electrodeformation (ED)) is included in a continuum approach with spatial resolution. We show that under an electric field excitation, the elongated nucleus scales differently compared to the electrodeformed cell.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elias Sabri
- Univ Brest, CNRS, Lab-STICC, CS 93837, 6 avenue Le Gorgeu, 29238 Brest Cedex 3, France
| | - Christian Brosseau
- Univ Brest, CNRS, Lab-STICC, CS 93837, 6 avenue Le Gorgeu, 29238 Brest Cedex 3, France.
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7
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Atia L, Fredberg JJ. A life off the beaten track in biomechanics: Imperfect elasticity, cytoskeletal glassiness, and epithelial unjamming. BIOPHYSICS REVIEWS 2023; 4:041304. [PMID: 38156333 PMCID: PMC10751956 DOI: 10.1063/5.0179719] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2023] [Accepted: 11/17/2023] [Indexed: 12/30/2023]
Abstract
Textbook descriptions of elasticity, viscosity, and viscoelasticity fail to account for certain mechanical behaviors that typify soft living matter. Here, we consider three examples. First, strong empirical evidence suggests that within lung parenchymal tissues, the frictional stresses expressed at the microscale are fundamentally not of viscous origin. Second, the cytoskeleton (CSK) of the airway smooth muscle cell, as well as that of all eukaryotic cells, is more solid-like than fluid-like, yet its elastic modulus is softer than the softest of soft rubbers by a factor of 104-105. Moreover, the eukaryotic CSK expresses power law rheology, innate malleability, and fluidization when sheared. For these reasons, taken together, the CSK of the living eukaryotic cell is reminiscent of the class of materials called soft glasses, thus likening it to inert materials such as clays, pastes slurries, emulsions, and foams. Third, the cellular collective comprising a confluent epithelial layer can become solid-like and jammed, fluid-like and unjammed, or something in between. Esoteric though each may seem, these discoveries are consequential insofar as they impact our understanding of bronchospasm and wound healing as well as cancer cell invasion and embryonic development. Moreover, there are reasons to suspect that certain of these phenomena first arose in the early protist as a result of evolutionary pressures exerted by the primordial microenvironment. We have hypothesized, further, that each then became passed down virtually unchanged to the present day as a conserved core process. These topics are addressed here not only because they are interesting but also because they track the journey of one laboratory along a path less traveled by.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lior Atia
- Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
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8
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Bonucci M, Shu T, Holt LJ. How it feels in a cell. Trends Cell Biol 2023; 33:924-938. [PMID: 37286396 PMCID: PMC10592589 DOI: 10.1016/j.tcb.2023.05.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2023] [Revised: 05/01/2023] [Accepted: 05/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Life emerges from thousands of biochemical processes occurring within a shared intracellular environment. We have gained deep insights from in vitro reconstitution of isolated biochemical reactions. However, the reaction medium in test tubes is typically simple and diluted. The cell interior is far more complex: macromolecules occupy more than a third of the space, and energy-consuming processes agitate the cell interior. Here, we review how this crowded, active environment impacts the motion and assembly of macromolecules, with an emphasis on mesoscale particles (10-1000 nm diameter). We describe methods to probe and analyze the biophysical properties of cells and highlight how changes in these properties can impact physiology and signaling, and potentially contribute to aging, and diseases, including cancer and neurodegeneration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Bonucci
- Institute for Systems Genetics, New York University Langone Medical Center, 435 E 30th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Tong Shu
- Institute for Systems Genetics, New York University Langone Medical Center, 435 E 30th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Liam J Holt
- Institute for Systems Genetics, New York University Langone Medical Center, 435 E 30th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA.
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9
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Shivers JL, Sharma A, MacKintosh FC. Strain-Controlled Critical Slowing Down in the Rheology of Disordered Networks. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2023; 131:178201. [PMID: 37955486 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.131.178201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Revised: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 11/14/2023]
Abstract
Networks and dense suspensions frequently reside near a boundary between soft (or fluidlike) and rigid (or solidlike) regimes. Transitions between these regimes can be driven by changes in structure, density, or applied stress or strain. In general, near the onset or loss of rigidity in these systems, dissipation-limiting heterogeneous nonaffine rearrangements dominate the macroscopic viscoelastic response, giving rise to diverging relaxation times and power-law rheology. Here, we describe a simple quantitative relationship between nonaffinity and the excess viscosity. We test this nonaffinity-viscosity relationship computationally and demonstrate its rheological consequences in simulations of strained filament networks and dense suspensions. We also predict critical signatures in the rheology of semiflexible and stiff biopolymer networks near the strain stiffening transition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordan L Shivers
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
- Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
| | - Abhinav Sharma
- Institute of Physics, University of Augsburg, 86159 Augsburg, Germany
- Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden, Institut Theorie der Polymere, 01069 Dresden, Germany
| | - Fred C MacKintosh
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
- Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
- Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
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10
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Nakul U, Roy S, Nalupurackal G, Chakraborty S, Siwach P, Goswami J, Edwina P, Bajpai SK, Singh R, Roy B. Studying fluctuating trajectories of optically confined passive tracers inside cells provides familiar active forces. BIOMEDICAL OPTICS EXPRESS 2023; 14:5440. [PMID: 37810271 PMCID: PMC7615170 DOI: 10.1364/boe.499990] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2023] [Revised: 08/14/2023] [Accepted: 09/05/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023]
Abstract
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in studying the trajectories of microparticles inside living cells. Among other things, such studies are useful in understanding the spatio-temporal properties of a cell. In this work, we study the stochastic trajectories of a passive microparticle inside a cell using experiments and theory. Our theory is based on modeling the microparticle inside a cell as an active particle in a viscoelastic medium. The activity is included in our model from an additional stochastic term with non-zero persistence in the Langevin equation describing the dynamics of the microparticle. Using this model, we are able to predict the power spectral density (PSD) measured in the experiment and compute active forces. This caters to the situation where a tracer particle is optically confined and then yields a PSD for positional fluctuations. The low frequency part of the PSD yields information about the active forces that the particle feels. The fit to the model extracts such active force. Thus, we can conclude that trapping the particle does not affect the values of the forces extracted from the active fits if accounted for appropriately by proper theoretical models. In addition, the fit also provides system properties and optical tweezers trap stiffness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Urvashi Nakul
- Department of Physics, Quantum Centre of Excellence for Diamond and Emergent Materials (QuCenDiEM), IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
| | - Srestha Roy
- Department of Physics, Quantum Centre of Excellence for Diamond and Emergent Materials (QuCenDiEM), IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
| | - Gokul Nalupurackal
- Department of Physics, Quantum Centre of Excellence for Diamond and Emergent Materials (QuCenDiEM), IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
| | - Snigdhadev Chakraborty
- Department of Physics, Quantum Centre of Excellence for Diamond and Emergent Materials (QuCenDiEM), IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
| | - Priyanka Siwach
- Department of Physics, Quantum Centre of Excellence for Diamond and Emergent Materials (QuCenDiEM), IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
| | - Jayesh Goswami
- Department of Physics, Quantum Centre of Excellence for Diamond and Emergent Materials (QuCenDiEM), IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
| | - Privita Edwina
- Department of Physics, Quantum Centre of Excellence for Diamond and Emergent Materials (QuCenDiEM), IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
- Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
| | | | - Rajesh Singh
- Department of Physics, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
| | - Basudev Roy
- Department of Physics, Quantum Centre of Excellence for Diamond and Emergent Materials (QuCenDiEM), IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
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11
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Shu T, Mitra G, Alberts J, Viana MP, Levy ED, Hocky GM, Holt LJ. Mesoscale molecular assembly is favored by the active, crowded cytoplasm. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.09.19.558334. [PMID: 37781612 PMCID: PMC10541124 DOI: 10.1101/2023.09.19.558334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/03/2023]
Abstract
The mesoscale organization of molecules into membraneless biomolecular condensates is emerging as a key mechanism of rapid spatiotemporal control in cells1. Principles of biomolecular condensation have been revealed through in vitro reconstitution2. However, intracellular environments are much more complex than test-tube environments: They are viscoelastic, highly crowded at the mesoscale, and are far from thermodynamic equilibrium due to the constant action of energy-consuming processes3. We developed synDrops, a synthetic phase separation system, to study how the cellular environment affects condensate formation. Three key features enable physical analysis: synDrops are inducible, bioorthogonal, and have well-defined geometry. This design allows kinetic analysis of synDrop assembly and facilitates computational simulation of the process. We compared experiments and simulations to determine that macromolecular crowding promotes condensate nucleation but inhibits droplet growth through coalescence. ATP-dependent cellular activities help overcome the frustration of growth. In particular, actomyosin dynamics potentiate droplet growth by reducing confinement and elasticity in the mammalian cytoplasm, thereby enabling synDrop coarsening. Our results demonstrate that mesoscale molecular assembly is favored by the combined effects of crowding and active matter in the cytoplasm. These results move toward a better predictive understanding of condensate formation in vivo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tong Shu
- Institute for Systems Genetics, NYU Langone Medical Center, 435 E 30th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Gaurav Mitra
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, New York, USA
| | | | | | - Emmanuel D. Levy
- Department of Chemical and Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Glen M. Hocky
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, New York, USA
- Simons Center for Computational Physical Chemistry, New York University, New York, New York, USA
| | - Liam J. Holt
- Institute for Systems Genetics, NYU Langone Medical Center, 435 E 30th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
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12
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Hardiman W, Clark M, Friel C, Huett A, Pérez-Cota F, Setchfield K, Wright AJ, Tassieri M. Living cells as a biological analog of optical tweezers - a non-invasive microrheology approach. Acta Biomater 2023; 166:317-325. [PMID: 37137402 DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2023.04.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2022] [Revised: 04/14/2023] [Accepted: 04/25/2023] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Microrheology, the study of fluids on micron length-scales, promises to reveal insights into cellular biology, including mechanical biomarkers of disease and the interplay between biomechanics and cellular function. Here a minimally-invasive passive microrheology technique is applied to individual living cells by chemically binding a bead to the surface of a cell, and observing the mean squared displacement of the bead at timescales ranging from milliseconds to 100s of seconds. Measurements are repeated over the course of hours, and presented alongside analysis to quantify changes in the cells' low-frequency elastic modulus, G0', and the cell's dynamics over the time window ∼10-2 s to 10 s. An analogy to optical trapping allows verification of the invariant viscosity of HeLa S3 cells under control conditions and after cytoskeletal disruption. Stiffening of the cell is observed during cytoskeletal rearrangement in the control case, and cell softening when the actin cytoskeleton is disrupted by Latrunculin B. These data correlate with conventional understanding that integrin binding and recruitment triggers cytoskeletal rearrangement. This is, to our knowledge, the first time that cell stiffening has been measured during focal adhesion maturation, and the longest time over which such stiffening has been quantified by any means. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Here, we present an approach for studying mechanical properties of live cells without applying external forces or inserting tracers. Regulation of cellular biomechanics is crucial to healthy cell function. For the first time in literature, we can non-invasively and passively quantify cell mechanics during interactions with functionalised surface. Our method can monitor the maturation of adhesion sites on the surface of individual live cells without disrupting the cell mechanics by applying forces to the cell. We observe a stiffening response in cells over tens of minutes after a bead chemically binds. This stiffening reduces the deformation rate of the cytoskeleton, although the internal force generation increases. Our method has potential for applications to study mechanics during cell-surface and cell-vesicle interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- William Hardiman
- Optics and Photonics Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
| | - Matt Clark
- Optics and Photonics Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Claire Friel
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, Medical School, QMC, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK
| | - Alan Huett
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, Medical School, QMC, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK
| | - Fernando Pérez-Cota
- Optics and Photonics Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Kerry Setchfield
- Optics and Photonics Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Amanda J Wright
- Optics and Photonics Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
| | - Manlio Tassieri
- Division of Biomedical Engineering, James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8LT, UK.
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13
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Paneru G, Tlusty T, Pak HK. Bona fide stochastic resonance under nonGaussian active fluctuations. SOFT MATTER 2023; 19:1356-1362. [PMID: 36723030 DOI: 10.1039/d2sm01449a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
We report on the experimental observation of stochastic resonance (SR) in a nonGaussian active bath without any periodic modulation. A Brownian particle hopping in a nanoscale double-well potential under the influence of nonGaussian correlated noise, with mean interval τP and correlation time τc, shows a series of equally-spaced peaks in the residence time distribution at integral multiples of τP. The strength of the first peak is found to be maximum when the mean residence time d matches the double condition, 4τc ≈ τP ≈ d/2, demonstrating a new type of bona fide SR. The experimental findings agree with a simple model that explains the emergence of SR without periodic modulation of the double-well potential. Additionally, we show that generic SR under periodic modulation, known to degrade in strongly correlated continuous noise, is recovered by the discrete nonGaussian kicks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Govind Paneru
- Center for Soft and Living Matter, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea.
- Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea
| | - Tsvi Tlusty
- Center for Soft and Living Matter, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea.
- Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyuk Kyu Pak
- Center for Soft and Living Matter, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea.
- Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea
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14
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Zhang M, Zhang S, Shi J, Hu Y, Wu S, Zan Z, Zhao P, Gao C, Du Y, Wang Y, Lin F, Fu X, Li D, Qin P, Fan Z. Cell mechanical responses to subcellular perturbations generated by ultrasound and targeted microbubbles. Acta Biomater 2023; 155:471-481. [PMID: 36400351 DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2022.11.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2022] [Revised: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 11/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The inherently dynamic and anisotropic microenvironment of cells imposes not only global and slow physical stimulations on cells but also acute and local perturbations. However, cell mechanical responses to transient subcellular physical signals remain unclear. In this study, acoustically activated targeted microbubbles were used to exert mechanical perturbations to single cells. The cellular contractile force was sensed by elastic micropillar arrays, while the pillar deformations were imaged using brightfield high-speed video microscopy at a frame rate of 1k frames per second for the first 10s and then confocal fluorescence microscopy. Cell mechanical responses are accompanied by cell membrane integrity changes. Both processes are determined by the perturbation strength generated by microbubble volumetric oscillations. The instantaneous cellular traction force relaxation exhibits two distinct patterns, correlated with two cell fates (survival or permanent damage). The mathematical modeling unveils that force-induced actomyosin disassembly leads to gradual traction force relaxation in the first few seconds. The perturbation may also influence the far end subcellular regions from the microbubbles and may propagate into connected cells with attenuations and delays. This study carefully characterizes the cell mechanical responses to local perturbations induced by ultrasound and microbubbles, advancing our understanding of the fundamentals of cell mechano-sensing, -responsiveness, and -transduction. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Subcellular physical perturbations commonly exist but haven't been fully explored yet. The subcellular perturbation generated by ultrasound and targeted microbubbles covers a wide range of strength, from mild, intermediate to intense, providing a broad biomedical relevance. With µm2 spatial sensing ability and up to 1ms temporal resolution, we present spatiotemporal details of the instantaneous cellular contractile force changes followed by attenuated and delayed global responses. The correlation between the cell mechanical responses and cell fates highlights the important role of the instantaneous mechanical responses in the entire cellular reactive processes. Supported by mathematical modeling, our work provides new insights into the dynamics and mechanisms of cell mechanics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meiru Zhang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Suyan Zhang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Jianmin Shi
- School of Sensing Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Yi Hu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Shuying Wu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Zhaoguang Zan
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Pu Zhao
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Changkai Gao
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Yanyao Du
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Yulin Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Feng Lin
- Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, China
| | - Xing Fu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Dachao Li
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Peng Qin
- School of Sensing Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Zhenzhen Fan
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; State Key Laboratory of Acoustics, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
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15
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Ho DLL, Lee S, Du J, Weiss JD, Tam T, Sinha S, Klinger D, Devine S, Hamfeldt A, Leng HT, Herrmann JE, He M, Fradkin LG, Tan TK, Standish D, Tomasello P, Traul D, Dianat N, Ladi R, Vicard Q, Katikireddy K, Skylar‐Scott MA. Large-Scale Production of Wholly Cellular Bioinks via the Optimization of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Aggregate Culture in Automated Bioreactors. Adv Healthc Mater 2022; 11:e2201138. [PMID: 36314397 PMCID: PMC10234214 DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202201138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2022] [Revised: 10/10/2022] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
Combining the sustainable culture of billions of human cells and the bioprinting of wholly cellular bioinks offers a pathway toward organ-scale tissue engineering. Traditional 2D culture methods are not inherently scalable due to cost, space, and handling constraints. Here, the suspension culture of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived aggregates (hAs) is optimized using an automated 250 mL stirred tank bioreactor system. Cell yield, aggregate morphology, and pluripotency marker expression are maintained over three serial passages in two distinct cell lines. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the same optimized parameters can be scaled to an automated 1 L stirred tank bioreactor system. This 4-day culture results in a 16.6- to 20.4-fold expansion of cells, generating approximately 4 billion cells per vessel, while maintaining >94% expression of pluripotency markers. The pluripotent aggregates can be subsequently differentiated into derivatives of the three germ layers, including cardiac aggregates, and vascular, cortical and intestinal organoids. Finally, the aggregates are compacted into a wholly cellular bioink for rheological characterization and 3D bioprinting. The printed hAs are subsequently differentiated into neuronal and vascular tissue. This work demonstrates an optimized suspension culture-to-3D bioprinting pipeline that enables a sustainable approach to billion cell-scale organ engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Debbie L. L. Ho
- Department of BioengineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
| | - Stacey Lee
- Department of BioengineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
| | - Jianyi Du
- Department of BioengineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
| | | | - Tony Tam
- Department of BioengineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
| | - Soham Sinha
- Department of BioengineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
| | - Danielle Klinger
- Department of BioengineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
| | - Sean Devine
- Sartorius Stedim North America Inc565 Johnson AvenueBohemiaNY11716USA
| | - Art Hamfeldt
- Sartorius Stedim North America Inc565 Johnson AvenueBohemiaNY11716USA
| | - Hope T. Leng
- Department of BioengineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
| | - Jessica E. Herrmann
- Department of BioengineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
- School of MedicineStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
| | - Mengdi He
- Materials Science and EngineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
| | - Lee G. Fradkin
- Department of BioengineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
| | - Tze Kai Tan
- Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineStanford University School of MedicineStanfordCA94305USA
- Department of GeneticsStanford University School of MedicineStanfordCA94305USA
- Department of PathologyStanford University School of MedicineStanfordCA94305USA
| | - David Standish
- Sartorius Stedim North America Inc565 Johnson AvenueBohemiaNY11716USA
| | - Peter Tomasello
- Sartorius Stedim North America Inc565 Johnson AvenueBohemiaNY11716USA
| | - Donald Traul
- Sartorius Stedim North America Inc565 Johnson AvenueBohemiaNY11716USA
| | - Noushin Dianat
- Sartorius Stedim France S.A.SZone Industrielle les PaludsAvenue de Jouques CS 71058Aubagne Cedex13781France
| | - Rukmini Ladi
- Sartorius Stedim North America Inc565 Johnson AvenueBohemiaNY11716USA
| | - Quentin Vicard
- Sartorius Stedim France S.A.SZone Industrielle les PaludsAvenue de Jouques CS 71058Aubagne Cedex13781France
| | | | - Mark A. Skylar‐Scott
- Department of BioengineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
- Basic Science and Engineering InitiativeChildren's Heart CenterStanford UniversityStanfordCA94305USA
- Chan Zuckerberg BiohubSan FranciscoCA94158USA
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16
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Shireen T, Sachs F, Hua SZ. Physical memory of astrocytes. Brain Res 2022; 1796:148076. [PMID: 36084692 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2022.148076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2022] [Revised: 08/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major risk factor for development of neurodegenerative disorders later in life. Short, repetitive, mechanical impacts can lead to pathology that appears days or months later. The cells have a physical "memory" of mechanical events. The origin of this memory is not known. To examine the properties of this memory, we used a microfluidic chip to apply programmed fluid shear pulses to adherent adult rat astrocytes. These caused a transient rise in intracellular Ca2+. In response to repeated stimuli, 6 to 24 hrs apart, the Ca2+ response increased. This effect lasted longer than 24 hrs. The Ca2+ responses were more sensitive to the number of repetitions than to the rest time between stimuli. We found that inhibiting the Ca2+ influx during conditioning stimulus did not eliminate the stress potentiation, suggesting that mechanical deformation during the primary injury is accountable for the later response. The mechanical mechanism that triggers this long term "memory" may act by plastic deformation of the cytoskeleton.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tasnim Shireen
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA
| | - Frederick Sachs
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA
| | - Susan Z Hua
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA; Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
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17
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Extraction of accurate cytoskeletal actin velocity distributions from noisy measurements. Nat Commun 2022; 13:4749. [PMID: 35963858 PMCID: PMC9376101 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31583-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2020] [Accepted: 06/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Dynamic remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton is essential for many cellular processes. Tracking the movement of individual actin filaments can in principle shed light on how this complex behavior arises at the molecular level. However, the information that can be extracted from these measurements is often limited by low signal-to-noise ratios. We developed a Bayesian statistical approach to estimate true, underlying velocity distributions from the tracks of individual actin-associated fluorophores with quantified localization uncertainties. We found that the motion of filamentous (F)-actin in fibroblasts and endothelial cells was better described by a statistical jump process than by models in which filaments undergo continuous, diffusive movement. In particular, a model with exponentially distributed jump length- and time-scales recapitulated actin filament velocity distributions measured for the cell cortex, integrin-based adhesions, and stress fibers, suggesting that a common physical model can potentially describe actin filament dynamics in a variety of cellular contexts.
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18
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Modeling ATP-mediated endothelial cell elongation on line patterns. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 2022; 21:1531-1548. [PMID: 35902488 PMCID: PMC9626447 DOI: 10.1007/s10237-022-01604-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2022] [Accepted: 06/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Endothelial cell (EC) migration is crucial for a wide range of processes including vascular wound healing, tumor angiogenesis, and the development of viable endovascular implants. We have previously demonstrated that ECs cultured on 15-μm wide adhesive line patterns exhibit three distinct migration phenotypes: (a) “running” cells that are polarized and migrate continuously and persistently on the adhesive lines with possible spontaneous directional changes, (b) “undecided” cells that are highly elongated and exhibit periodic changes in the direction of their polarization while maintaining minimal net migration, and (c) “tumbling-like” cells that migrate persistently for a certain amount of time but then stop and round up for a few hours before spreading again and resuming migration. Importantly, the three migration patterns are associated with distinct profiles of cell length. Because of the impact of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) on cytoskeletal organization and cell polarization, we hypothesize that the observed differences in EC length among the three different migration phenotypes are driven by differences in intracellular ATP levels. In the present work, we develop a mathematical model that incorporates the interactions between cell length, cytoskeletal (F-actin) organization, and intracellular ATP concentration. An optimization procedure is used to obtain the model parameter values that best fit the experimental data on EC lengths. The results indicate that a minimalist model based on differences in intracellular ATP levels is capable of capturing the different cell length profiles observed experimentally.
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19
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Abstract
Arrested soft materials such as gels and glasses exhibit a slow stress relaxation with a broad distribution of relaxation times in response to linear mechanical perturbations. Although this macroscopic stress relaxation is an essential feature in the application of arrested systems as structural materials, consumer products, foods, and biological materials, the microscopic origins of this relaxation remain poorly understood. Here, we elucidate the microscopic dynamics underlying the stress relaxation of such arrested soft materials under both quiescent and mechanically perturbed conditions through X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. By studying the dynamics of a model associative gel system that undergoes dynamical arrest in the absence of aging effects, we show that the mean stress relaxation time measured from linear rheometry is directly correlated to the quiescent superdiffusive dynamics of the microscopic clusters, which are governed by a buildup of internal stresses during arrest. We also show that perturbing the system via small mechanical deformations can result in large intermittent fluctuations in the form of avalanches, which give rise to a broad non-Gaussian spectrum of relaxation modes at short times that is observed in stress relaxation measurements. These findings suggest that the linear viscoelastic stress relaxation in arrested soft materials may be governed by nonlinear phenomena involving an interplay of internal stress relaxations and perturbation-induced intermittent avalanches.
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20
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Mao Y, Nielsen P, Ali J. Passive and Active Microrheology for Biomedical Systems. Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2022; 10:916354. [PMID: 35866030 PMCID: PMC9294381 DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.916354] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2022] [Accepted: 06/08/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Microrheology encompasses a range of methods to measure the mechanical properties of soft materials. By characterizing the motion of embedded microscopic particles, microrheology extends the probing length scale and frequency range of conventional bulk rheology. Microrheology can be characterized into either passive or active methods based on the driving force exerted on probe particles. Tracer particles are driven by thermal energy in passive methods, applying minimal deformation to the assessed medium. In active techniques, particles are manipulated by an external force, most commonly produced through optical and magnetic fields. Small-scale rheology holds significant advantages over conventional bulk rheology, such as eliminating the need for large sample sizes, the ability to probe fragile materials non-destructively, and a wider probing frequency range. More importantly, some microrheological techniques can obtain spatiotemporal information of local microenvironments and accurately describe the heterogeneity of structurally complex fluids. Recently, there has been significant growth in using these minimally invasive techniques to investigate a wide range of biomedical systems both in vitro and in vivo. Here, we review the latest applications and advancements of microrheology in mammalian cells, tissues, and biofluids and discuss the current challenges and potential future advances on the horizon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yating Mao
- Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Tallahassee, FL, United States
- National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, FL, United States
| | - Paige Nielsen
- Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Tallahassee, FL, United States
- National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, FL, United States
| | - Jamel Ali
- Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Tallahassee, FL, United States
- National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, FL, United States
- *Correspondence: Jamel Ali,
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21
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Bera P, Wasim A, Mondal J. Hi-C embedded polymer model of Escherichia coli reveals the origin of heterogeneous subdiffusion in chromosomal loci. Phys Rev E 2022; 105:064402. [PMID: 35854496 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.105.064402] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2021] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Underneath its apparently simple architecture, the circular chromosome of Escherichia coli is known for displaying complex dynamics in its cytoplasm, with past investigations hinting at inherently diverse mobilities of chromosomal loci across the genome. To decipher its origin, we simulate the dynamics of genome-wide spectrum of E. coli chromosomal loci, via integrating its experimentally derived Hi-C interaction matrix within a polymer-based model. Our analysis demonstrates that, while the dynamics of the chromosome is subdiffusive in a viscoelastic media, the diffusion constants are strongly dependent of chromosomal loci coordinates and diffusive exponents (α) are widely heterogenous with α ≈ 0.36-0.60. The loci-dependent heterogeneous dynamics and mean first-passage times of interloci encounter were found to be modulated via genetically distant interloci communications and is robust even in the presence of active, ATP-dependent noises. Control investigations reveal that the absence of Hi-C-derived interactions in the model would have abolished the traits of heterogeneous loci diffusion, underscoring the key role of loci-specific genetically distant interaction in modulating the underlying heterogeneity of the loci diffusion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Palash Bera
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad 500046, India
| | - Abdul Wasim
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad 500046, India
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22
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Song M, Kwon S. Enhanced Cellular Permeation Efficiency Through Mechanical Vibration-induced Actin Cytoskeleton Changes in Human Nasal Epithelial Cells. BIOTECHNOL BIOPROC E 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s12257-021-0070-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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23
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Shi Y, Sivarajan S, Xiang KM, Kostecki GM, Tung L, Crocker JC, Reich DH. Pervasive cytoquakes in the actomyosin cortex across cell types and substrate stiffness. Integr Biol (Camb) 2021; 13:246-257. [PMID: 34875067 DOI: 10.1093/intbio/zyab017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2021] [Revised: 10/25/2021] [Accepted: 11/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
The actomyosin cytoskeleton enables cells to resist deformation, crawl, change their shape and sense their surroundings. Despite decades of study, how its molecular constituents can assemble together to form a network with the observed mechanics of cells remains poorly understood. Recently, it has been shown that the actomyosin cortex of quiescent cells can undergo frequent, abrupt reconfigurations and displacements, called cytoquakes. Notably, such fluctuations are not predicted by current physical models of actomyosin networks, and their prevalence across cell types and mechanical environments has not previously been studied. Using micropost array detectors, we have performed high-resolution measurements of the dynamic mechanical fluctuations of cells' actomyosin cortex and stress fiber networks. This reveals cortical dynamics dominated by cytoquakes-intermittent events with a fat-tailed distribution of displacements, sometimes spanning microposts separated by 4 μm, in all cell types studied. These included 3T3 fibroblasts, where cytoquakes persisted over substrate stiffnesses spanning the tissue-relevant range of 4.3 kPa-17 kPa, and primary neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts and myofibroblasts, human embryonic kidney cells and human bone osteosarcoma epithelial (U2OS) cells, where cytoquakes were observed on substrates in the same stiffness range. Overall, these findings suggest that the cortex self-organizes into a marginally stable mechanical state whose physics may contribute to cell mechanical properties, active behavior and mechanosensing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Shi
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Shankar Sivarajan
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Katherine M Xiang
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Geran M Kostecki
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Leslie Tung
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - John C Crocker
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Daniel H Reich
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
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24
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Paneru G, Park JT, Pak HK. Transport and Diffusion Enhancement in Experimentally Realized Non-Gaussian Correlated Ratchets. J Phys Chem Lett 2021; 12:11078-11084. [PMID: 34748337 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c03037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Living cells are known to generate non-Gaussian active fluctuations significantly larger than thermal fluctuations owing to various active processes. Understanding the effect of these active fluctuations on various physicochemical processes, such as the transport of molecular motors, is a fundamental problem in nonequilibrium physics. Therefore, we experimentally and numerically studied an active Brownian ratchet comprising a colloidal particle in an optically generated asymmetric periodic potential driven by non-Gaussian noise having finite-amplitude active bursts, each arriving at random and decaying exponentially. We find that the particle velocity is maximum for relatively sparse bursts with finite correlation time and non-Gaussian distribution. These occasional kicks, which produce Brownian yet non-Gaussian diffusion, are more efficient for transport and diffusion enhancement of the particle than the incessant kicks of active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Govind Paneru
- Center for Soft and Living Matter, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea
- Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea
| | - Jin Tae Park
- Center for Soft and Living Matter, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyuk Kyu Pak
- Center for Soft and Living Matter, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea
- Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea
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25
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Reichert J, Mandal S, Voigtmann T. Mode-coupling theory for tagged-particle motion of active Brownian particles. Phys Rev E 2021; 104:044608. [PMID: 34781467 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.104.044608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2021] [Accepted: 10/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
We derive a mode-coupling theory (MCT) to describe the dynamics of a tracer particle that is embedded in a dense system of active Brownian particles (ABPs) in two spatial dimensions. The ABP undergo translational and rotational Brownian motion and are equipped with a fixed self-propulsion speed along their orientational vector that describes their active motility. The resulting equations of motion for the tagged-particle density-correlation functions describe the various cases of tracer dynamics close to the glass transition: that of a single active particle in a glass-forming passive host suspensions, that of a passive colloidal particle in a suspension of ABP, and that of active tracers in a bath of active particles. Numerical results are presented for these cases assuming hard-sphere interactions among the particles. The qualitative and quantitative accuracy of the theory is tested against event-driven Brownian dynamics (ED-BD) simulations of active and passive hard disks. Simulation and theory are found in quantitative agreement, provided one adjusts the overall density (as known from the passive description of glassy dynamics), and allows for a rescaling of self-propulsion velocities in the active host system. These adjustments account for the fact that ABP-MCT generally overestimates the tendency for kinetic arrest. We confirm in the simulations a peculiar feature of the transient and stationary dynamical density-correlation functions regarding their lack of symmetry under time reversal, demonstrating the nonequilibrium nature of the system and how it manifests itself in the theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julian Reichert
- Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), 51170 Köln, Germany
| | - Suvendu Mandal
- Department of Physics, Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Thomas Voigtmann
- Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), 51170 Köln, Germany.,Department of Physics, Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
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26
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Chen S, Broedersz CP, Markovich T, MacKintosh FC. Nonlinear stress relaxation of transiently crosslinked biopolymer networks. Phys Rev E 2021; 104:034418. [PMID: 34654176 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.104.034418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2021] [Accepted: 08/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
A long-standing puzzle in the rheology of living cells is the origin of the experimentally observed long-time stress relaxation. The mechanics of the cell is largely dictated by the cytoskeleton, which is a biopolymer network consisting of transient crosslinkers, allowing for stress relaxation over time. Moreover, these networks are internally stressed due to the presence of molecular motors. In this work we propose a theoretical model that uses a mode-dependent mobility to describe the stress relaxation of such prestressed transient networks. Our theoretical predictions agree favorably with experimental data of reconstituted cytoskeletal networks and may provide an explanation for the slow stress relaxation observed in cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sihan Chen
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.,Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
| | - Chase P Broedersz
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.,Arnold-Sommerfeld-Center for Theoretical Physics and Center for NanoScience, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, D-80333 München, Germany
| | - Tomer Markovich
- Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
| | - Fred C MacKintosh
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.,Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.,Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.,Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
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27
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Zanotelli MR, Zhang J, Reinhart-King CA. Mechanoresponsive metabolism in cancer cell migration and metastasis. Cell Metab 2021; 33:1307-1321. [PMID: 33915111 PMCID: PMC9015673 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2021.04.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 135] [Impact Index Per Article: 45.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2021] [Revised: 03/16/2021] [Accepted: 04/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Altered tissue mechanics and metabolism are defining characteristics of cancer that impact not only proliferation but also migration. While migrating through a mechanically and spatially heterogeneous microenvironment, changes in metabolism allow cells to dynamically tune energy generation and bioenergetics in response to fluctuating energy needs. Physical cues from the extracellular matrix influence mechanosignaling pathways, cell mechanics, and cytoskeletal architecture to alter presentation and function of metabolic enzymes. In cancer, altered mechanosensing and metabolic reprogramming supports metabolic plasticity and high energy production while cells migrate and metastasize. Here, we discuss the role of mechanoresponsive metabolism in regulating cell migration and supporting metastasis as well as the potential of therapeutically targeting cancer metabolism to block motility and potentially metastasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew R Zanotelli
- Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
| | - Jian Zhang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
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28
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Cheng G, Lin C, Perez-Mercader J. Self-Organizing Microdroplet Protocells Displaying Light-Driven Oscillatory and Morphological Evolution. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2021; 17:e2101162. [PMID: 33977654 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202101162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2021] [Revised: 03/23/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The development of synthetic systems that enable the sustained active self-assembly of molecular blocks to mimic the complexity and dynamic behavior of living systems is of great interest in elucidating the origins of life, understanding the basic principles behind biological organization, and designing active materials. However, it remains a challenge to construct microsystems with dynamic behaviors and functions that are connected to molecular self-assembly processes driven by external energy. Here, an active self-assembly of microdroplet protocells with dynamic structure and high structural complexity through living radical polymerization under constant energy flux is reported. The active microdroplet protocells exhibit nonlinear behaviors including oscillatory growth and shrinkage. This relies on the transient stabilization of molecular assembly, which can channel the inflow of energy through noncovalent interactions of pure synthetic components. The intercommunication of microdroplet protocells through stochastic fusion leads to the formation of a variety of dynamic and higher-order biomimetic microstructures. This work constitutes an important step toward the realization of autonomous and dynamic microsystems and active materials with life-like properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gong Cheng
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Origins of Life Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
| | - Chenyu Lin
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Origins of Life Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
| | - Juan Perez-Mercader
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Origins of Life Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, USA
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29
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Chowdhury F, Huang B, Wang N. Cytoskeletal prestress: The cellular hallmark in mechanobiology and mechanomedicine. Cytoskeleton (Hoboken) 2021; 78:249-276. [PMID: 33754478 PMCID: PMC8518377 DOI: 10.1002/cm.21658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2021] [Revised: 03/16/2021] [Accepted: 03/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Increasing evidence demonstrates that mechanical forces, in addition to soluble molecules, impact cell and tissue functions in physiology and diseases. How living cells integrate mechanical signals to perform appropriate biological functions is an area of intense investigation. Here, we review the evidence of the central role of cytoskeletal prestress in mechanotransduction and mechanobiology. Elevating cytoskeletal prestress increases cell stiffness and reinforces cell stiffening, facilitates long-range cytoplasmic mechanotransduction via integrins, enables direct chromatin stretching and rapid gene expression, spurs embryonic development and stem cell differentiation, and boosts immune cell activation and killing of tumor cells whereas lowering cytoskeletal prestress maintains embryonic stem cell pluripotency, promotes tumorigenesis and metastasis of stem cell-like malignant tumor-repopulating cells, and elevates drug delivery efficiency of soft-tumor-cell-derived microparticles. The overwhelming evidence suggests that the cytoskeletal prestress is the governing principle and the cellular hallmark in mechanobiology. The application of mechanobiology to medicine (mechanomedicine) is rapidly emerging and may help advance human health and improve diagnostics, treatment, and therapeutics of diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Farhan Chowdhury
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Energy ProcessesSouthern Illinois University CarbondaleCarbondaleIllinoisUSA
| | - Bo Huang
- Department of Immunology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular BiologyChinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical CollegeBeijingChina
| | - Ning Wang
- Department of Mechanical Science and EngineeringUniversity of Illinois at Urbana‐ChampaignUrbanaIllinoisUSA
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30
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Zak A, Merino-Cortés SV, Sadoun A, Mustapha F, Babataheri A, Dogniaux S, Dupré-Crochet S, Hudik E, He HT, Barakat AI, Carrasco YR, Hamon Y, Puech PH, Hivroz C, Nüsse O, Husson J. Rapid viscoelastic changes are a hallmark of early leukocyte activation. Biophys J 2021; 120:1692-1704. [PMID: 33730552 PMCID: PMC8204340 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2021.02.042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2020] [Revised: 11/23/2020] [Accepted: 02/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
To accomplish their critical task of removing infected cells and fighting pathogens, leukocytes activate by forming specialized interfaces with other cells. The physics of this key immunological process are poorly understood, but it is important to understand them because leukocytes have been shown to react to their mechanical environment. Using an innovative micropipette rheometer, we show in three different types of leukocytes that, when stimulated by microbeads mimicking target cells, leukocytes become up to 10 times stiffer and more viscous. These mechanical changes start within seconds after contact and evolve rapidly over minutes. Remarkably, leukocyte elastic and viscous properties evolve in parallel, preserving a well-defined ratio that constitutes a mechanical signature specific to each cell type. Our results indicate that simultaneously tracking both elastic and viscous properties during an active cell process provides a new, to our knowledge, way to investigate cell mechanical processes. Our findings also suggest that dynamic immunomechanical measurements can help discriminate between leukocyte subtypes during activation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Zak
- LadHyX, CNRS, Ecole polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau, France; Institut de Chimie Physique, CNRS UMR8000, Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France
| | | | - Anaïs Sadoun
- Aix-Marseille University, LAI UM 61, Marseille, France; Inserm, UMR_S 1067, Marseille, France; CNRS, UMR 7333, Marseille, France
| | - Farah Mustapha
- Aix-Marseille University, LAI UM 61, Marseille, France; Inserm, UMR_S 1067, Marseille, France; CNRS, UMR 7333, Marseille, France; Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Avin Babataheri
- LadHyX, CNRS, Ecole polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau, France
| | - Stéphanie Dogniaux
- Integrative analysis of T cell activation team, Institut Curie-PSL Research University, INSERM U932, Paris, France
| | - Sophie Dupré-Crochet
- Institut de Chimie Physique, CNRS UMR8000, Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France
| | - Elodie Hudik
- Institut de Chimie Physique, CNRS UMR8000, Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France
| | - Hai-Tao He
- Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, INSERM, CIML, Marseille, France
| | - Abdul I Barakat
- LadHyX, CNRS, Ecole polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau, France
| | - Yolanda R Carrasco
- B Lymphocyte Dynamics Laboratory, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB)-CSIC, Madrid, Spain
| | - Yannick Hamon
- Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, INSERM, CIML, Marseille, France
| | - Pierre-Henri Puech
- Aix-Marseille University, LAI UM 61, Marseille, France; Inserm, UMR_S 1067, Marseille, France; CNRS, UMR 7333, Marseille, France
| | - Claire Hivroz
- Integrative analysis of T cell activation team, Institut Curie-PSL Research University, INSERM U932, Paris, France
| | - Oliver Nüsse
- Institut de Chimie Physique, CNRS UMR8000, Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France
| | - Julien Husson
- LadHyX, CNRS, Ecole polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau, France.
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31
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Wu Y, Zanotelli MR, Zhang J, Reinhart-King CA. Matrix-driven changes in metabolism support cytoskeletal activity to promote cell migration. Biophys J 2021; 120:1705-1717. [PMID: 33705759 PMCID: PMC8204337 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2021.02.044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Revised: 02/03/2021] [Accepted: 02/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
The microenvironment provides both active and passive mechanical cues that regulate cell morphology, adhesion, migration, and metabolism. Although the cellular response to those mechanical cues often requires energy-intensive actin cytoskeletal remodeling and actomyosin contractility, it remains unclear how cells dynamically adapt their metabolic activity to altered mechanical cues to support migration. Here, we investigated the changes in cellular metabolic activity in response to different two-dimensional and three-dimensional microenvironmental conditions and how these changes relate to cytoskeletal activity and migration. Utilizing collagen micropatterning on polyacrylamide gels, intracellular energy levels and oxidative phosphorylation were found to be correlated with cell elongation and spreading and necessary for membrane ruffling. To determine whether this relationship holds in more physiological three-dimensional matrices, collagen matrices were used to show that intracellular energy state was also correlated with protrusive activity and increased with matrix density. Pharmacological inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation revealed that cancer cells rely on oxidative phosphorylation to meet the elevated energy requirements for protrusive activity and migration in denser matrices. Together, these findings suggest that mechanical regulation of cytoskeletal activity during spreading and migration by the physical microenvironment is driven by an altered metabolic profile.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yusheng Wu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Matthew R Zanotelli
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
| | - Jian Zhang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
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32
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Åberg C, Poolman B. Glass-like characteristics of intracellular motion in human cells. Biophys J 2021; 120:2355-2366. [PMID: 33887228 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2021.04.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2020] [Revised: 03/29/2021] [Accepted: 04/09/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The motion in the cytosol of microorganisms such as bacteria and yeast has been observed to undergo a dramatic slowing down upon cell energy depletion. These observations have been interpreted as the motion being "glassy," but whether this notion is useful also for active, motor-protein-driven transport in eukaryotic cells is less clear. Here, we use fluorescence microscopy of beads in human (HeLa) cells to probe the motion of membrane-surrounded structures that are carried along the cytoskeleton by motor proteins. Evaluating several hallmarks of glassy dynamics, we show that at short length scales, the motion is heterogeneous, is nonergodic, is well described by a model for the displacement distribution in glassy systems, and exhibits a decoupling of the exchange and persistence times. Overall, these results suggest that the short length scale behavior of objects that can be transported actively by motor proteins in human cells shares features with the motion in glassy systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christoffer Åberg
- Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Biochemistry, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
| | - Bert Poolman
- Department of Biochemistry, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
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33
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Evers TMJ, Holt LJ, Alberti S, Mashaghi A. Reciprocal regulation of cellular mechanics and metabolism. Nat Metab 2021; 3:456-468. [PMID: 33875882 PMCID: PMC8863344 DOI: 10.1038/s42255-021-00384-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2020] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Metabolism and mechanics are intrinsically intertwined. External forces, sensed through the cytoskeleton or distortion of the cell and organelles, induce metabolic changes in the cell. The resulting changes in metabolism, in turn, feed back to regulate every level of cell biology, including the mechanical properties of cells and tissues. Here we examine the links between metabolism and mechanics, highlighting signalling pathways involved in the regulation and response to cellular mechanosensing. We consider how forces and metabolism regulate one another through nanoscale molecular sensors, micrometre-scale cytoskeletal networks, organelles and dynamic biomolecular condensates. Understanding this cross-talk will create diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities for metabolic disorders such as cancer, cardiovascular pathologies and obesity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom M J Evers
- Medical Systems Biophysics and Bioengineering, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Faculty of Science, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Liam J Holt
- Institute for Systems Genetics, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY, USA
| | - Simon Alberti
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany
| | - Alireza Mashaghi
- Medical Systems Biophysics and Bioengineering, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Faculty of Science, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands.
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34
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Mosier JA, Wu Y, Reinhart-King CA. Recent advances in understanding the role of metabolic heterogeneities in cell migration. Fac Rev 2021; 10:8. [PMID: 33659926 PMCID: PMC7894266 DOI: 10.12703/r/10-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Migration is an energy-intensive, multi-step process involving cell adhesion, protrusion, and detachment. Each of these steps require cells to generate and consume energy, regulating their morphological changes and force generation. Given the need for energy to move, cellular metabolism has emerged as a critical regulator of both single cell and collective migration. Recently, metabolic heterogeneity has been highlighted as a potential determinant of collective cell behavior, as individual cells may play distinct roles in collective migration. Several tools and techniques have been developed and adapted to study cellular energetics during migration including live-cell probes to characterize energy utilization and metabolic state and methodologies to sort cells based on their metabolic profile. Here, we review the recent advances in techniques, parsing the metabolic heterogeneities inherent in cell populations and their contributions to cell migration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenna A Mosier
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Yusheng Wu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
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35
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Abstract
Epithelial cells possess the ability to change their shape in response to mechanical stress by remodelling their junctions and their cytoskeleton. This property lies at the heart of tissue morphogenesis in embryos. A key feature of embryonic cell shape changes is that they result from repeated mechanical inputs that make them partially irreversible at each step. Past work on cell rheology has rarely addressed how changes can become irreversible in a complex tissue. Here, we review new and exciting findings dissecting some of the physical principles and molecular mechanisms accounting for irreversible cell shape changes. We discuss concepts of mechanical ratchets and tension thresholds required to induce permanent cell deformations akin to mechanical plasticity. Work in different systems has highlighted the importance of actin remodelling and of E-cadherin endocytosis. We also list some novel experimental approaches to fine-tune mechanical tension, using optogenetics, magnetic beads or stretching of suspended epithelial tissues. Finally, we discuss some mathematical models that have been used to describe the quantitative aspects of accounting for mechanical cell plasticity and offer perspectives on this rapidly evolving field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly Molnar
- Sorbonne Université, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine (IBPS), CNRS UMR7622, 9 Quai St-Bernard, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Michel Labouesse
- Sorbonne Université, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine (IBPS), CNRS UMR7622, 9 Quai St-Bernard, 75005 Paris, France
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36
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Adamczyk O, Baster Z, Szczypior M, Rajfur Z. Substrate Stiffness Mediates Formation of Novel Cytoskeletal Structures in Fibroblasts during Cell-Microspheres Interaction. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:960. [PMID: 33478069 PMCID: PMC7835802 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22020960] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Revised: 01/13/2021] [Accepted: 01/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
It is well known that living cells interact mechanically with their microenvironment. Many basic cell functions, like migration, proliferation, gene expression, and differentiation, are influenced by external forces exerted on the cell. That is why it is extremely important to study how mechanical properties of the culture substrate influence the cellular molecular regulatory pathways. Optical microscopy is one of the most common experimental method used to visualize and study cellular processes. Confocal microscopy allows to observe changes in the 3D organization of the cytoskeleton in response to a precise mechanical stimulus applied with, for example, a bead trapped with optical tweezers. Optical tweezers-based method (OT) is a microrheological technique which employs a focused laser beam and polystyrene or latex beads to study mechanical properties of biological systems. Latex beads, functionalized with a specific protein, can interact with proteins located on the surface of the cellular membrane. Such interaction can significantly affect the cell's behavior. In this work, we demonstrate that beads alone, placed on the cell surface, significantly change the architecture of actin, microtubule, and intermediate filaments. We also show that the observed molecular response to such stimulus depends on the duration of the cell-bead interaction. Application of cytoskeletal drugs: cytochalasin D, jasplakinolide, and docetaxel, abrogates remodeling effects of the cytoskeleton. More important, when cells are plated on elastic substrates, which mimic the mechanical properties of physiological cellular environment, we observe formation of novel, "cup-like" structures formed by the microtubule cytoskeleton upon interaction with latex beads. These results provide new insights into the function of the microtubule cytoskeleton. Based on these results, we conclude that rigidity of the substrate significantly affects the cellular processes related to every component of the cytoskeleton, especially their architecture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olga Adamczyk
- Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, 30-348 Kraków, Poland; (O.A.); (Z.B.); (M.S.)
| | - Zbigniew Baster
- Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, 30-348 Kraków, Poland; (O.A.); (Z.B.); (M.S.)
| | - Maksymilian Szczypior
- Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, 30-348 Kraków, Poland; (O.A.); (Z.B.); (M.S.)
| | - Zenon Rajfur
- Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, 30-348 Kraków, Poland; (O.A.); (Z.B.); (M.S.)
- Jagiellonian Center of Biomedical Imaging, Jagiellonian University, 30-348 Kraków, Poland
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37
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Romanov V, Silvani G, Zhu H, Cox CD, Martinac B. An Acoustic Platform for Single-Cell, High-Throughput Measurements of the Viscoelastic Properties of Cells. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2021; 17:e2005759. [PMID: 33326190 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202005759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2020] [Revised: 12/01/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Cellular processes including adhesion, migration, and differentiation are governed by the distinct mechanical properties of each cell. Importantly, the mechanical properties of individual cells can vary depending on local physical and biochemical cues in a time-dependent manner resulting in significant inter-cell heterogeneity. While several different methods have been developed to interrogate the mechanical properties of single cells, throughput to capture this heterogeneity remains an issue. Here, single-cell, high-throughput characterization of adherent cells is demonstrated using acoustic force spectroscopy (AFS). AFS works by simultaneously, acoustically driving tens to hundreds of silica beads attached to cells away from the cell surface, allowing the user to measure the stiffness of adherent cells under multiple experimental conditions. It is shown that cells undergo marked changes in viscoelasticity as a function of temperature, by altering the temperature within the AFS microfluidic circuit between 21 and 37 °C. In addition, quantitative differences in cells exposed to different pharmacological treatments specifically targeting the membrane-cytoskeleton interface are shown. Further, the high-throughput format of the AFS is utilized to rapidly probe, in excess of 1000 cells, three different cell lines expressing different levels of a mechanosensitive protein, Piezo1, demonstrating the ability to differentiate between cells based on protein expression levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentin Romanov
- Department of Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia
| | - Giulia Silvani
- Department of Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia
| | - Huiyu Zhu
- Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, Sydney, NSW, 2007, Australia
| | - Charles D Cox
- Department of Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia
- St Vincent's Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia
| | - Boris Martinac
- Department of Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia
- St Vincent's Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia
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38
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Li Y, Chen M, Hu J, Sheng R, Lin Q, He X, Guo M. Volumetric Compression Induces Intracellular Crowding to Control Intestinal Organoid Growth via Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling. Cell Stem Cell 2020; 28:63-78.e7. [PMID: 33053374 DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2020.09.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2019] [Revised: 02/26/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Enormous amounts of essential intracellular events are crowdedly packed inside picoliter-sized cellular space. However, the significance of the physical properties of cells remains underappreciated because of a lack of evidence of how they affect cellular functionalities. Here, we show that volumetric compression regulates the growth of intestinal organoids by modifying intracellular crowding and elevating Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Intracellular crowding varies upon stimulation by different types of extracellular physical/mechanical cues and leads to significant enhancement of Wnt/β-catenin signaling by stabilizing the LRP6 signalosome. By enhancing intracellular crowding using osmotic and mechanical compression, we show that expansion of intestinal organoids was facilitated through elevated Wnt/β-catenin signaling and greater intestinal stem cell (ISC) self-renewal. Our results provide an entry point for understanding how intracellular crowdedness functions as a physical regulator linking extracellular physical cues with intracellular signaling and potentially facilitate the design of engineering approaches for expansion of stem cells and organoids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiwei Li
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Maorong Chen
- F. M. Kirby Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Jiliang Hu
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Ren Sheng
- F. M. Kirby Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; College of Life and Health Science, Northeastern University, Shenyang, Liaoning, 110004, China
| | - Qirong Lin
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Xi He
- F. M. Kirby Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Ming Guo
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
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39
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Barenholz-Cohen T, Merkher Y, Haj J, Shechter D, Kirchmeier D, Shaked Y, Weihs D. Lung mechanics modifications facilitating metastasis are mediated in part by breast cancer-derived extracellular vesicles. Int J Cancer 2020; 147:2924-2933. [PMID: 32700789 DOI: 10.1002/ijc.33229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2020] [Revised: 07/10/2020] [Accepted: 07/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Tumor microenvironment-mechanics greatly affect tumor-cell characteristics such as invasion and proliferation. We and others have previously shown that after chemotherapy, tumor cells shed more extracellular vesicles (EVs), leading to tumor growth and even spread, via angiogenesis and the mobilization of specific bone-marrow-derived cells contributing to metastasis. However, physical, mechanobiological and mechanostructural changes at premetastatic sites that may support tumor cell seeding, have yet to be determined. Here, we collected tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (tEV) from breast carcinoma cells exposed to paclitaxel chemotherapy, and tested their effects on tissue mechanics (eg, elasticity and stiffness) of likely metastatic organs in cancer-free mice, using shear rheometry. Cancer-free mice were injected with saline or with tEVs from untreated cells and lung tissue demonstrated widely variable, viscoelastic mechanics, being more elastic than viscous. Contrastingly, tEVs from chemotherapy-exposed cells induced more uniform, viscoelastic lung mechanics, with lower stiffness and viscosity; interestingly, livers were significantly stiffer than both controls. We observe statistically significant differences in softening of lung samples from all three groups under increasing strain-amplitudes and in their stiffening under increasing strain-frequencies; the groups reach similar values at high strain amplitudes and frequencies, indicating local changes in tissue microstructure. Evaluation of genes associated with the extracellular matrix and fibronectin protein-expression revealed potential compositional changes underlying the altered mechanics. Thus, we propose that tEVs, even without cancer cells, contribute to metastasis by changing microstructures at distant organs. This is done partially by altering the composition and mechanostructure of tissues to support tumor cell invasion and seeding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamar Barenholz-Cohen
- Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Yulia Merkher
- Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Jozafina Haj
- Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Integrated Cancer Center, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Dvir Shechter
- Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Integrated Cancer Center, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Daniela Kirchmeier
- Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.,Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria
| | - Yuval Shaked
- Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Integrated Cancer Center, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Daphne Weihs
- Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
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40
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Stamenović D, Smith ML. Tensional homeostasis at different length scales. SOFT MATTER 2020; 16:6946-6963. [PMID: 32696799 DOI: 10.1039/d0sm00763c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Tensional homeostasis is a phenomenon of fundamental importance in mechanobiology. It refers to the ability of organs, tissues, and cells to respond to external disturbances by maintaining a homeostatic (set point) level of mechanical stress (tension). It is well documented that breakdown in tensional homeostasis is the hallmark of progression of diseases, including cancer and atherosclerosis. In this review, we surveyed quantitative studies of tensional homeostasis with the goal of providing characterization of this phenomenon across a broad range of length scales, from the organ level to the subcellular level. We considered both static and dynamics approaches that have been used in studies of this phenomenon. Results that we found in the literature and that we obtained from our own investigations suggest that tensional homeostasis is an emergent phenomenon driven by collective rheostatic mechanisms associated with focal adhesions, and by a collective action of cells in multicellular forms, whose impact on tensional homeostasis is cell type-dependent and cell microenvironment-dependent. Additionally, the finding that cadherins, adhesion molecules that are important for formation of cell-cell junctions, promote tensional homeostasis even in single cells, demonstrates their relevance as a signaling moiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dimitrije Stamenović
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, 44 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
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Aermes C, Hayn A, Fischer T, Mierke CT. Environmentally controlled magnetic nano-tweezer for living cells and extracellular matrices. Sci Rep 2020; 10:13453. [PMID: 32778758 PMCID: PMC7417586 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-70428-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2020] [Accepted: 07/16/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The magnetic tweezer technique has become a versatile tool for unfolding or folding of individual molecules, mainly DNA. In addition to single molecule analysis, the magnetic tweezer can be used to analyze the mechanical properties of cells and extracellular matrices. We have established a magnetic tweezer that is capable of measuring the linear and non-linear viscoelastic behavior of a wide range of soft matter in precisely controlled environmental conditions, such as temperature, CO2 and humidity. The magnetic tweezer presented in this study is suitable to detect specific differences in the mechanical properties of different cell lines, such as human breast cancer cells and mouse embryonic fibroblasts, as well as collagen matrices of distinct concentrations in the presence and absence of fibronectin crosslinks. The precise calibration and control mechanism employed in the presented magnetic tweezer setup provides the ability to apply physiological force up to 5 nN on 4.5 µm superparamagnetic beads coated with fibronectin and coupled to the cells or collagen matrices. These measurements reveal specific local linear and non-linear viscoelastic behavior of the investigated samples. The viscoelastic response of cells and collagen matrices to the force application is best described by a weak power law behavior. Our results demonstrate that the stress stiffening response and the fluidization of cells is cell type specific and varies largely between differently invasive and aggressive cancer cells. Finally, we showed that the viscoelastic behavior of collagen matrices with and without fibronectin crosslinks measured by the magnetic tweezer can be related to the microstructure of these matrices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Aermes
- Faculty of Physics and Earth Science, Peter Debye Institute of Soft Matter Physics, Biological Physics Division, University of Leipzig, Linnéstr. 5, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Alexander Hayn
- Faculty of Physics and Earth Science, Peter Debye Institute of Soft Matter Physics, Biological Physics Division, University of Leipzig, Linnéstr. 5, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Tony Fischer
- Faculty of Physics and Earth Science, Peter Debye Institute of Soft Matter Physics, Biological Physics Division, University of Leipzig, Linnéstr. 5, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Claudia Tanja Mierke
- Faculty of Physics and Earth Science, Peter Debye Institute of Soft Matter Physics, Biological Physics Division, University of Leipzig, Linnéstr. 5, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
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42
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Chaubet L, Chaudhary AR, Heris HK, Ehrlicher AJ, Hendricks AG. Dynamic actin cross-linking governs the cytoplasm's transition to fluid-like behavior. Mol Biol Cell 2020; 31:1744-1752. [PMID: 32579489 PMCID: PMC7521843 DOI: 10.1091/mbc.e19-09-0504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2019] [Revised: 06/05/2020] [Accepted: 06/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Cells precisely control their mechanical properties to organize and differentiate into tissues. The architecture and connectivity of cytoskeletal filaments change in response to mechanical and biochemical cues, allowing the cell to rapidly tune its mechanics from highly cross-linked, elastic networks to weakly cross-linked viscous networks. While the role of actin cross-linking in controlling actin network mechanics is well-characterized in purified actin networks, its mechanical role in the cytoplasm of living cells remains unknown. Here, we probe the frequency-dependent intracellular viscoelastic properties of living cells using multifrequency excitation and in situ optical trap calibration. At long timescales in the intracellular environment, we observe that the cytoskeleton becomes fluid-like. The mechanics are well-captured by a model in which actin filaments are dynamically connected by a single dominant cross-linker. A disease-causing point mutation (K255E) of the actin cross-linker α-actinin 4 (ACTN4) causes its binding kinetics to be insensitive to tension. Under normal conditions, the viscoelastic properties of wild-type (WT) and K255E+/- cells are similar. However, when tension is reduced through myosin II inhibition, WT cells relax 3× faster to the fluid-like regime while K255E+/- cells are not affected. These results indicate that dynamic actin cross-linking enables the cytoplasm to flow at long timescales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Loïc Chaubet
- Department of Bioengineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0C3, Canada
| | | | - Hossein K. Heris
- Department of Bioengineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0C3, Canada
| | - Allen J. Ehrlicher
- Department of Bioengineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0C3, Canada
| | - Adam G. Hendricks
- Department of Bioengineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0C3, Canada
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Chakraborty S, Mahamid J, Baumeister W. Cryoelectron Tomography Reveals Nanoscale Organization of the Cytoskeleton and Its Relation to Microtubule Curvature Inside Cells. Structure 2020; 28:991-1003.e4. [PMID: 32579947 DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2020.05.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2019] [Revised: 04/24/2020] [Accepted: 05/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Microtubules (MTs) are the most rigid elements of the cytoskeleton with in vitro persistence lengths (Lp) in the range of 1-6 mm. In cellular environments, however, MTs often appear strongly curved. This has been attributed to the forces acting upon them in situ where they are embedded in composite networks of different cytoskeletal elements. Hitherto, the nanoscale organization of these networks has remained largely uncharacterized. Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) allowed to visualize and analyze the in situ structure of cytoskeletal networks in pristinely preserved cellular environments and at high resolution. Here, we studied the molecular organization of MTs and their interactions with the composite cytoskeleton in frozen-hydrated HeLa and P19 cells at different cell-cycle stages. We describe modulation of MT curvature correlated with the surrounding molecular architecture, and show that nanoscale defects occur in curved MTs. The data presented here contribute to constructing realistic models of cytoskeletal biomechanics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saikat Chakraborty
- Department of Molecular Structural Biology, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsried, Germany
| | - Julia Mahamid
- Department of Molecular Structural Biology, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsried, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Baumeister
- Department of Molecular Structural Biology, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsried, Germany.
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44
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Mutated lamin A modulates stiffness in muscle cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2020; 529:861-867. [PMID: 32540097 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.05.102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2020] [Accepted: 05/13/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
The cytoskeleton is a complex network interlinking filaments that extend throughout the cytoplasm from the nucleus to the plasma membrane. Three major types of filaments are found in the cytoskeleton: actin filaments, microtubules, and intermediate filaments. They play a key role in the ability of cells to both resist mechanical stress and generate force. However, the precise involvement of intermediate filament proteins in these processes remains unclear. Here, we focused on nuclear A-type lamins, which are connected to the cytoskeleton via the Linker of Nucleoskeleton and Cytoskeleton (LINC) complex. Using micro-constriction rheology, we investigated the impact of A-type lamins (p.H222P) mutation on the mechanical properties of muscle cells. We demonstrate that the expression of point mutation of lamin A in muscle cells increases cellular stiffness compared with cells expressing wild type lamin A and that the chemical agent selumetinib, an inhibitor of the ERK1/2 signaling, reversed the mechanical alterations in mutated cells. These results highlight the interplay between A-type lamins and mechano-signaling, which are supported by cell biology measurements.
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Liverpool TB. Steady-state distributions and nonsteady dynamics in nonequilibrium systems. Phys Rev E 2020; 101:042107. [PMID: 32422705 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.101.042107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2018] [Accepted: 02/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
We search for steady states in a class of fluctuating and driven physical systems that exhibit sustained currents. We find that the physical concept of a steady state, well known for systems at equilibrium, must be generalized to describe such systems. In these, the generalization of a steady state is associated with a stationary probability density of microstates and a deterministic dynamical system whose trajectories the system follows on average. These trajectories are a manifestation of nonstationary macroscopic currents observed in these systems. We determine precise conditions for the steady state to exist as well as the requirements for it to be stable. We illustrate this with some examples.
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Walker M, Rizzuto P, Godin M, Pelling AE. Structural and mechanical remodeling of the cytoskeleton maintains tensional homeostasis in 3D microtissues under acute dynamic stretch. Sci Rep 2020; 10:7696. [PMID: 32376876 PMCID: PMC7203149 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64725-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2019] [Accepted: 04/21/2020] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
When stretched, cells cultured on 2D substrates share a universal softening and fluidization response that arises from poorly understood remodeling of well-conserved cytoskeletal elements. It is known, however, that the structure and distribution of the cytoskeleton is profoundly influenced by the dimensionality of a cell's environment. Therefore, in this study we aimed to determine whether cells cultured in a 3D matrix share this softening behavior and to link it to cytoskeletal remodeling. To achieve this, we developed a high-throughput approach to measure the dynamic mechanical properties of cells and allow for sub-cellular imaging within physiologically relevant 3D microtissues. We found that fibroblast, smooth muscle and skeletal muscle microtissues strain softened but did not fluidize, and upon loading cessation, they regained their initial mechanical properties. Furthermore, microtissue prestress decreased with the strain amplitude to maintain a constant mean tension. This adaptation under an auxotonic condition resulted in lengthening. A filamentous actin cytoskeleton was required, and responses were mirrored by changes to actin remodeling rates and visual evidence of stretch-induced actin depolymerization. Our new approach for assessing cell mechanics has linked behaviors seen in 2D cultures to a 3D matrix, and connected remodeling of the cytoskeleton to homeostatic mechanical regulation of tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew Walker
- Department of Biology, Gendron Hall, 30 Marie Curie, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N5N5, Canada
| | - Pauline Rizzuto
- Université Côte d'Azur, 28 Avenue de Valrose, Nice, 06108, France
| | - Michel Godin
- Department of Physics, STEM Complex, 150 Louis Pasteur Pvt., University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Colonel By Hall, 161 Louis Pasteur, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N6N5, Canada
- Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Colonel By Hall, 161 Louis Pasteur, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N6N5, Canada
| | - Andrew E Pelling
- Department of Biology, Gendron Hall, 30 Marie Curie, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N5N5, Canada.
- Department of Physics, STEM Complex, 150 Louis Pasteur Pvt., University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
- Institute for Science Society and Policy, Simard Hall, 60 University, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N5N5, Canada.
- SymbioticA, School of Human Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia.
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Berntsen P, Ericsson T, Swenson J, Sjögren L. Complex modulus and compliance for airway smooth muscle cells. Phys Rev E 2020; 101:032410. [PMID: 32289912 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.101.032410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2019] [Accepted: 01/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
A cell can be described as a complex viscoelastic material with structural relaxations that is modulated by thermal and chemically nonequilibrium processes. Tissue morphology and function rely upon cells' physical responses to mechanical force. We measured the frequency-dependent mechanical relaxation response of adherent human airway smooth muscle cells under adenosine triphosphate (ATP) depletion and normal ATP conditions. The frequency dependence of the complex compliance J^{*} and modulus G^{*} was measured over the frequencies 10^{-1}<f<10^{3} Hz at selected temperatures between 4<T<54^{∘}C. Our results show characteristic relaxation features which can be interpreted by the mode-coupling theory (MCT) of viscoelastic liquids. We analyze the shape of the spectra in terms of a so-called A_{4} scenario with logarithmic scaling laws. Characteristic timescales τ_{β} and τ_{α} appear with corresponding energy barriers E_{β}≈(10-20)k_{B}T and E_{α}≈(20-30)k_{B}T. We demonstrate that cells are close to a glass transition. We find that the cell becomes softer around physiological temperatures, where its surface structure is more liquid-like with a plateau modulus around 0.1-0.8 kPa compared with the more solid-like interior cytoskeletal structures with a plateau modulus 1-15 kPa. Corresponding values for the viscosity are 10^{2}-10^{3} Pa s for the surface structures closer to the membrane and 10^{4}-10^{6} Pa s for the core cytoskeletal structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Berntsen
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, Department of Chemistry and Physics, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria 3086, Australia
| | - Thomas Ericsson
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, Chalmers University of Technology, and the University of Gothenburg, 41296 Göteborg, Sweden
| | - Jan Swenson
- Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296 Göteborg, Sweden
| | - Lennart Sjögren
- Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, 41296 Göteborg, Sweden
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48
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Delgadillo LF, Marsh GA, Waugh RE. Endothelial Glycocalyx Layer Properties and Its Ability to Limit Leukocyte Adhesion. Biophys J 2020; 118:1564-1575. [PMID: 32135082 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2020.02.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2019] [Revised: 11/20/2019] [Accepted: 02/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The endothelial glycocalyx layer (EGL), which consists of long proteoglycans protruding from the endothelium, acts as a regulator of inflammation by preventing leukocyte engagement with adhesion molecules on the endothelial surface. The amount of resistance to adhesive events the EGL provides is the result of two properties: EGL thickness and stiffness. To determine these, we used an atomic force microscope to indent the surfaces of cultured endothelial cells with a glass bead and evaluated two different approaches for interpreting the resulting force-indentation curves. In one, we treat the EGL as a molecular brush, and in the other, we treat it as a thin elastic layer on an elastic half-space. The latter approach proved more robust in our hands and yielded a thickness of 110 nm and a modulus of 0.025 kPa. Neither value showed significant dependence on indentation rate. The brush model indicated a larger layer thickness (∼350 nm) but tended to result in larger uncertainties in the fitted parameters. The modulus of the endothelial cell was determined to be 3.0-6.5 kPa (1.5-2.5 kPa for the brush model), with a significant increase in modulus with increasing indentation rates. For forces and leukocyte properties in the physiological range, a model of a leukocyte interacting with the endothelium predicts that the number of molecules within bonding range should decrease by an order of magnitude because of the presence of a 110-nm-thick layer and even further for a glycocalyx with larger thickness. Consistent with these predictions, neutrophil adhesion increased for endothelial cells with reduced EGL thickness because they were grown in the absence of fluid shear stress. These studies establish a framework for understanding how glycocalyx layers with different thickness and stiffness limit adhesive events under homeostatic conditions and how glycocalyx damage or removal will increase leukocyte adhesion potential during inflammation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis F Delgadillo
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
| | - Graham A Marsh
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
| | - Richard E Waugh
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.
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Singh RK, Mahato J, Chowdhury A, Sain A, Nandi A. Non-Gaussian subdiffusion of single-molecule tracers in a hydrated polymer network. J Chem Phys 2020; 152:024903. [PMID: 31941310 DOI: 10.1063/1.5128743] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Single molecule tracking experiments inside a hydrated polymer network have shown that the tracer motion is subdiffusive due to the viscoelastic environment inside the gel-like network. This property can be related to the negative autocorrelation of the instantaneous displacements at short times. Although the displacements of the individual tracers exhibit Gaussian statistics, the displacement distribution of all the trajectories combined from different spatial locations of the polymer network exhibits a non-Gaussian distribution. Here, we analyze many individual tracer trajectories to show that the central portion of the non-Gaussian distribution can be well approximated by an exponential distribution that spreads sublinearly with time. We explain all these features seen in the experiment by a generalized Langevin model for an overdamped particle with algebraically decaying correlations. We show that the degree of non-Gaussianity can change with the extent of heterogeneity, which is controlled in our model by the experimentally observed distributions of the motion parameters.
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Affiliation(s)
- R K Singh
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
| | - Jaladhar Mahato
- Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
| | - Arindam Chowdhury
- Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
| | - Anirban Sain
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
| | - Amitabha Nandi
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
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50
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Liu A, Yu T, Young K, Stone N, Hanasoge S, Kirby TJ, Varadarajan V, Colonna N, Liu J, Raj A, Lammerding J, Alexeev A, Sulchek T. Cell Mechanical and Physiological Behavior in the Regime of Rapid Mechanical Compressions that Lead to Cell Volume Change. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2020; 16:e1903857. [PMID: 31782912 PMCID: PMC7012384 DOI: 10.1002/smll.201903857] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2019] [Revised: 11/05/2019] [Indexed: 04/14/2023]
Abstract
Cells respond to mechanical forces by deforming in accordance with viscoelastic solid behavior. Studies of microscale cell deformation observed by high speed video microscopy have elucidated a new cell behavior in which sufficiently rapid mechanical compression of cells can lead to transient cell volume loss and then recovery. This work has discovered that the resulting volume exchange between the cell interior and the surrounding fluid can be utilized for efficient, convective delivery of large macromolecules (2000 kDa) to the cell interior. However, many fundamental questions remain about this cell behavior, including the range of deformation time scales that result in cell volume loss and the physiological effects experienced by the cell. In this study, a relationship is established between cell viscoelastic properties and the inertial forces imposed on the cell that serves as a predictor of cell volume loss across human cell types. It is determined that cells maintain nuclear envelope integrity and demonstrate low protein loss after the volume exchange process. These results define a highly controlled cell volume exchange mechanism for intracellular delivery of large macromolecules that maintains cell viability and function for invaluable downstream research and clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Liu
- Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 313 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0535, USA
| | - Tong Yu
- Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 313 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0535, USA
| | - Katherine Young
- Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 313 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0535, USA
| | - Nicholas Stone
- George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 801 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0405, USA
| | - Srinivas Hanasoge
- George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 801 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0405, USA
| | - Tyler J. Kirby
- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
- Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
| | - Vikram Varadarajan
- Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 313 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0535, USA
| | - Nicholas Colonna
- Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 313 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0535, USA
| | - Janet Liu
- Aragon High School, 900 Alameda de las Pulgas, San Mateo, CA, 94402, USA
| | - Abhishek Raj
- George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 801 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0405, USA
| | - Jan Lammerding
- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
- Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
| | - Alexander Alexeev
- George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 801 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0405, USA
| | - Todd Sulchek
- George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 801 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0405, USA
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