Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Hypergravity affects Cell Traction Forces of Fibroblasts

J. Eckert, J. J.W.A. van Loon, L. M. Eng, View ORCID ProfileT. Schmidt
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.30.015958
J. Eckert
1Leiden University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
J. J.W.A. van Loon
2Amsterdam University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
L. M. Eng
3Dresden University of Technology
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
T. Schmidt
1Leiden University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for T. Schmidt
  • For correspondence: schmidt@physics.leidenuniv.nl
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

Cells sense and react on changes of the mechanical properties of their environment, and likewise respond to external mechanical stress applied to them. Whether the gravitational field, as overall body force, modulates cellular behavior is however unclear. Different studies demonstrated that micro- and hypergravity influences the shape and elasticity of cells, initiate cytoskeleton reorganization, and influence cell motility. All these cellular properties are interconnected, and contribute to forces that cells apply on their surrounding microenvironment. Yet, studies that investigated changes of cell traction forces under hypergravity conditions are scarce. Here we performed hypergravity experiments on 3T3 fibroblast cells using the Large Diameter Centrifuge at the European Space and Technology Centre (ESA-ESTEC). cells were exposed to hypergravity of up to 19.5g for 16 h in both the upright and the inverted orientation with respect to the g-force vector. We observed a decrease in cellular traction forces when the gravitational field was increased up to 5.4g, followed by an increase of traction forces for higher gravity fields up to 19.5g independent of the orientation of the gravity vector. We attribute the switch in cellular response to shear-thinning at low g-forces, followed by significant rearrangement and enforcement of the cytoskeleton at high g-forces.

SIGNIFICANCE The behavior of cells critically depend on the mechanical properties of their environment. For example external stresses and strains lead to decisions in cell differentiation as well as to collective-migration in metastasis. Gravity, as a permanently acting body force, is one of those externs stresses. We demonstrate the impact of gravitational challenges on forces that cells apply to their environment. We observed a switch in cellular response with a decrease in cell traction forces for low bypgrarayiv. conditions, followed by a significant increase in cell traction forces at higher g-level. This particular cellular response reflects a switch in croskeletal organization, similar to that observed for cells in fluids where shear forces act.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted March 31, 2020.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Hypergravity affects Cell Traction Forces of Fibroblasts
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Hypergravity affects Cell Traction Forces of Fibroblasts
J. Eckert, J. J.W.A. van Loon, L. M. Eng, T. Schmidt
bioRxiv 2020.03.30.015958; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.30.015958
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Hypergravity affects Cell Traction Forces of Fibroblasts
J. Eckert, J. J.W.A. van Loon, L. M. Eng, T. Schmidt
bioRxiv 2020.03.30.015958; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.30.015958

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Biophysics
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4086)
  • Biochemistry (8759)
  • Bioengineering (6479)
  • Bioinformatics (23339)
  • Biophysics (11748)
  • Cancer Biology (9148)
  • Cell Biology (13245)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7413)
  • Ecology (11368)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15086)
  • Genetics (10397)
  • Genomics (14009)
  • Immunology (9118)
  • Microbiology (22039)
  • Molecular Biology (8778)
  • Neuroscience (47356)
  • Paleontology (350)
  • Pathology (1420)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2480)
  • Physiology (3703)
  • Plant Biology (8049)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1431)
  • Synthetic Biology (2208)
  • Systems Biology (6015)
  • Zoology (1249)