ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America1999
Dimensional and mechanical dynamics of active and stable edges in motile fibroblasts investigated by using atomic force microscopy.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1999. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 121 papers.
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Who cites it
121 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Mechanical properties of epithelial cells in domes investigated using atomic force microscopy.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Article
- Supracellular measurement of spatially varying mechanical heterogeneities in live monolayers.Biophysical journal · 2022Article
- The role of cellular traction forces in deciphering nuclear mechanics.Biomaterials research · 2022Review
- The effects of measurement parameters on the cancerous cell nucleus characterisation by atomic force microscopy in vitro.Journal of microscopy · 2022Article
- Elasticity-associated rebinding rate of molecular bonds between soft elastic media.Biophysical journal · 2022Article
- Viscoelasticity, Like Forces, Plays a Role in Mechanotransduction.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Cell Cytoskeleton and Stiffness Are Mechanical Indicators of Organotropism in Breast Cancer.Biology · 2021Article
- Potential antitumor activity of digitoxin and user-designed analog administered to human lung cancer cells.Biochimica et biophysica acta. General subjects · 2020Article
- Predictive assembling model reveals the self-adaptive elastic properties of lamellipodial actin networks for cell migration.Communications biology · 2020Article
- Expanding Canonical Spider Silk Properties through a DNA Combinatorial Approach.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
61 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Abstract
The atomic force microscope (AFM) was employed to investigate the extension and retraction dynamics of protruding and stable edges of motile 3T3 fibroblasts in culture. Such dynamics closely paralleled the results of earlier studies employing video microscopy that indicated that the AFM force-mapping technique does not appreciably perturb these dynamics. Force scans permitted height determinations of active and stable edges. Whereas the profiles of active edges are flat with average heights of 0.4-0.8 micrometer, stable edges smoothly ascend to 2-3 micrometers within about 6 micrometers of the edge. In the region of the leading edge, the height fluctuates up to 50% (SD) of the mean value, much more than the stable edge; this fluctuation presumably reflects differences in underlying cytoskeletal activity. In addition, force mapping yields an estimate of the local Young's modulus or modulus of elasticity (E, the cortical stiffness). This stiffness will be related to "cortical tension," can be accurately calculated for the stable edges, and is approximately 12 kPa in this case. The thinness of the leading edge precludes accurate estimation of the E values, but within 4 micrometers of the margin it is considerably smaller than that for stable edges, which have an upper limit of 3-5 kPa. Although blebbing cannot absolutely be ruled out as a mechanism of extension, the data are consistent with an actin polymerization and/or myosin motor mechanism in which the average material properties of the extending margin would be nearly constant to the edge. Because the leading edge is softer than the stable edge, these data also are consistent with the notion that extension preferentially occurs in regions of lower cortical tension.
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