SKM 2023 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 28: Poster Session II
BP 28.36: Poster
Donnerstag, 30. März 2023, 18:00–20:00, P2/EG
Interactions of cytoskeletal elements during phagocytosis in macrophages. — •Erbara Gjana1 and Franziska Lautenschläger1,2 — 1Department of Physics, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany — 2Center for Physics, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
The structure of cells is realized via their cytoskeleton - a polymer network inside cells. It is the main component of structural integrity and it shapes cells. The cytoskeleton is involved in many active cellular activities that includes cell division, migration, and phagocytosis. In macrophages, we know that actin - one protein of the cytoskeleton * plays an important role during phagocytosis. In my project, I work on understanding how actin is involved in sensing the object which needs to be phagocytosed.
Particularly, I study the effect of the physical properties such as form, size and stiffness of the objects. Therefore, I am varying the stiffness of objects, e.g. I use gelatine beads, latex beads and polystyrene beads and investigate how these are phagocytosed with the help of actin. Through different microscopy methods (epi-fluorescence, confocal) I will be able to image the process of phagocytosis. Till now, we have established phagocytosis protocols with macrophages derived from the cell line HL60. For a better biological fit I am now shifting to THP1 derived macrophages. This will help me to understand questions such as how macrophages distinguish between dead cells (ei. Dead RBCs), cell debris, and healthy cells. Also, we collaborate with theoreticians be build general mathematical model of phagocytosis.