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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 30: Posters: Physics of Cells

BP 30.4: Poster

Thursday, March 17, 2011, 17:15–20:00, P3

Force Generation in Contractile Cells — •Sarah Schwarz G. Henriques¹, Hansjörg Schwertz², Alexander Strate³, and Sarah Köster¹ — ¹CRC Physics, University of Göttingen, Germany — ²Division of Vascular Surgery, University of Utah, USA — ³Transfusion Department, University Clinic of Göttingen, Germany

Contraction at the cellular level is vital for living organisms. A most prominent type of contractile cells are heart muscle cells, a less well known example are blood platelets. Blood platelets are responsible for clot formation in mammals. They activate at damaged blood vessel sites by changing their shape, interlinking with each other and contracting to build a compact blood clot. Apart from being of great medical importance, blood platelets represent an ideal model system for studies of cellular contraction for two main reasons: They are simple being anucleate and their activation, which occurs within minutes, can be triggered and synchronized by the addition of thrombin. In our experiments we look at force generation at the level of single cells during platelet contraction. To this end, we use traction force microscopy which enables time-resolved measurements of force fields generated by isolated cells. Furthermore, we fix cells at different activation stages and stain both vinculin and actin in order to map focal adhesion sites and describe cytoskeletal reorganization steps. In combining both traction force microscopy and fluorescence imaging we can resolve traction force maps for single cells and simultaneously access information about force generating mechanisms in the cytoskeleton. Finally, we gather our experimental findings into a mechanical model for cellular contraction.