ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2015
Force fluctuations in three-dimensional suspended fibroblasts.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Harnessing optical forces with advanced nanophotonic structures: principles and applications.Discover nano · 2025Review
- Robust quantification of cellular mechanics using optical tweezers.Biophysical reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Probing force in living cells with optical tweezers: from single-molecule mechanics to cell mechanotransduction.Biophysical reviews · 2019Review
- Characterization of the mechanical properties of cancer cells in 3D matrices in response to collagen concentration and cytoskeletal inhibitors.Integrative biology : quantitative biosciences from nano to macro · 2018Article
- Active Prestress Leads to an Apparent Stiffening of Cells through Geometrical Effects.Biophysical journal · 2018Article
- Feedback-tracking microrheology in living cells.Science advances · 2017Article
- Dissipation of contractile forces: the missing piece in cell mechanics.Molecular biology of the cell · 2017Article
- Myosin II Activity Softens Cells in Suspension.Biophysical journal · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cells are sensitive to mechanical cues from their environment and at the same time generate and transmit forces to their surroundings. To test quantitatively forces generated by cells not attached to a substrate, we used a dual optical trap to suspend 3T3 fibroblasts between two fibronectin-coated beads. In this simple geometry, we measured both the cells' elastic properties and the force fluctuations they generate with high bandwidth. Cell stiffness decreased substantially with both myosin inhibition by blebbistatin and serum-starvation, but not with microtubule depolymerization by nocodazole. We show that cortical forces generated by non-muscle myosin II deform the cell from its rounded shape in the frequency regime from 0.1 to 10 Hz. The amplitudes of these forces were strongly reduced by blebbistatin and serum starvation, but were unaffected by depolymerization of microtubules. Force fluctuations show a spectrum that is characteristic for an elastic network activated by random sustained stresses with abrupt transitions.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.