RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 High stretchability, strength and toughness of living cells enabled by hyperelastic vimentin network
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 446666
DO 10.1101/446666
A1 Jiliang Hu
A1 Yiwei Li
A1 Yukun Hao
A1 Tianqi Zheng
A1 German Alberto Parada
A1 Huayin Wu
A1 Shaoting Lin
A1 Shida Wang
A1 Xuanhe Zhao
A1 Robert D. Goldman
A1 Shengqiang Cai
A1 Ming Guo
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/10/18/446666.abstract
AB In many normal and abnormal physiological processes, including cellular migration during normal development and invasion in cancer metastasis, cells are required to withstand severe deformations. The structural integrity of eukaryotic cells under small deformations has been known to depend on the cytoskeleton including actin filaments (F-actin), microtubules and intermediate filaments (IFs). However, it remains unclear how cells resist severe deformations since both F-actin and microtubules fluidize or disassemble under moderate strains. Here, we demonstrate that vimentin intermediate filaments (VIFs), a marker of mesenchymal cells, dominate cytoplasmic mechanics at large deformations. Our results show that cytoskeletal VIFs form a stretchable, hyperelastic network. This network works synergistically with other dissipative cytoplasmic components, substantially enhancing the strength, stretchability, resilience and toughness of the living cytoplasm.