Abstract
The intracellular environment is composed of a filamentous network that exhibits dynamic turnover of cytoskeletal components and internal force generation from molecular motors. Particle tracking microrheology enables a means to probe the internal mechanics and dynamics. Here, we develop an analytical model to capture the basic features of the active intracellular mechanical environment, including both thermal and motor-driven effects, and show consistency with a diverse range of experimental microrheology data. We further perform microrheology experiments, integrated with Brownian dynamics simulations of the active cytoskeleton, on metastatic breast cancer cells embedded in a three-dimensional collagen matrix with and without the presence of epidermal growth factor to probe the intracellular mechanical response in a physiologically mimicking scenario. Our results demonstrate that EGF stimulation can alter intracellular stiffness and power output from molecular motor-driven fluctuations in cells overexpressing an invasive isoform of the actin-associated protein Mena.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1874-1884 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Biophysical Journal |
Volume | 112 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 9 May 2017 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biophysics