Dresden 2014 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 11: Posters: Cytoskeleton

BP 11.8: Poster

Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 09:30–12:30, P1

Active Microrheology: Mechanical Properties of In Vitro Assembled Keratin Networks — Tobias Paust¹, Katinka Mertens¹, Ines Martin¹, Tobias Neckernuß¹, Michael Beil², and •Othmar Marti¹ — ¹Institute of Experimental Physics — ²Department of Internal Medicine I

Macro- and microrheology is extensively used to characterize complex networks of biopolymers. From this data one infers mechanical properties affecting migration or the response to external stresses. So far macro- and microrheology give similar but not identical responses.

The aim in these studies is to gather information about the dynamic mechanical properties of in vitro assembled keratin 8/18 networks realized by an optical tweezers setup.

In this work we explore the possibility of multi-point microrheology to determine locally the complex tensorial elastic response of heterogeneous networks. We use the measurements to find possible differences between macro- and microrheology. A careful analysis of the data provides additionally the frequency response of the complex elastic tensor. Furthermore, it is possible to determine phase dependencies between excitation and response. We show the data of measurements of in vitro assembled keratin 8/18 networks with varying Mg2+ concentrations.