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Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 168102 (2009) [4 pages]

High-Resolution Probing of Cellular Force Transmission

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Daisuke Mizuno1, Rommel Bacabac2, Catherine Tardin3, David Head4, and Christoph F. Schmidt5
1Organization for the Promotion of Advanced Research, Kyushu University, 812-8581, Fukuoka, Japan
2Department of Oral Cell Biology, ACTA-Vrije Universiteit, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands
3IPBS/CNRS, 31062 Toulouse Cedex, France
4Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
5III. Physikalisches Institut, Georg-August-Universität, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

Received 15 November 2008; published 20 April 2009

Cells actively probe mechanical properties of their environment by exerting internally generated forces. The response they encounter profoundly affects their behavior. Here we measure in a simple geometry the forces a cell exerts suspended by two optical traps. Our assay quantifies both the overall force and the fraction of that force transmitted to the environment. Mimicking environments of varying stiffness by adjusting the strength of the traps, we found that the force transmission is highly dependent on external compliance. This suggests a calibration mechanism for cellular mechanosensing.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.168102
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.168102
PACS:
87.17.Rt, 83.85.Ei, 87.16.dj, 87.16.dm
 
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