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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 27: Cell Mechanics I

BP 27.7: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 12. März 2026, 11:30–11:45, BAR/0205

Complex Rheology in Single Cells: Compression Stiffening but Shear Softening — •James P. Conboy¹, Luis Alonso², Haiqian Yang², Nicole van Vliet¹, Pouyan E. Boukany¹, Fred C. MacKintosh³, and Gijsje H. Koenderink¹ — ¹TU Delft, NL — ²MIT, USA — ³Rice University, USA

In multicellular organisms, cells are constantly subjected to physical forces. Cells in the heart, lungs and skin experience primarily compression and stretching, whereas shear forces are dominant in the brain and in blood vessels. The mechanical resilience to compression and shear forces is essential for preventing cell damage or even rupture. Our aim is to understand the response of cells to external mechanical cues. For this purpose, we have developed a novel single cell rheology setup that allows us for the first time to make direct comparisons between a living mammalian cell's response to compression and shear strain. In this work, we have identified the relative contribution of actin and vimentin intermediate filaments in uniaxial compression experiments on single fibroblasts. Our findings reveal that individual fibroblasts undergo stiffening under physiologically relevant compressive strains, but the removal of vimentin reduces this stiffening effect. Furthermore, we present, to our knowledge, the pioneering example of single-cell shear rheology experiments, where we discovered that cells soften when sheared, in stark contrast to their stiffening behaviour under compression. Finally, we propose a minimal model to elucidate these phenomena and compare our results to semiflexible polymer models used to explain the mechanics of reconstituted cytoskeletal systems.

Keywords: Cell mechanics; Rheology; Cytoskeleton