Stiffness versus prestress relationship at subcellular length scale

Abstract

Local intracellular variations of cell mechanical properties, which are essential for vital cellular functions, have not been well characterized and are poorly understood. Here, we used results from our previous biomechanical imaging study to obtain relationships between intracellular shear modulus and prestress. We found that the subcellular shear modulus vs. prestress relationships exhibited positive linear correlations, consistent with previously observed behaviors at the whole cell and tissue levels. This, in turn, suggests that the prestress may be a unifying factor that determines material properties of living matter at different length scales.

Keywords: Cell mechanics; Imaging; Prestress; Stiffness; Traction forces.

Figure 1

Representative plots of intracellular shear modulus vs. prestress data (dots) and the corresponding linear regressions (solid line) for A) a cell with a strong correlation (Cell #18 from Table 1), B) a cell with a strong correlation (Cell #3 from Table 1), C) a cell with a moderate correlation (Cell #6 from Table 1), and D) a cell with a weak correlation (Cell #5 from Table 1).