Internet-based image analysis quantifies contractile behavior of individual fibroblasts inside model tissue.

ABSTRACT: In a cell-populated collagen gel, intrinsic fiber structure visible in differential interference contrast images can provide markers for an in situ strain gauge to quantify cell-gel mechanics, while optical sections of fluorescent protein distribution capture cytoskeletal kinematics. Mechanics quantification can be derived automatically from timelapse differential interference contrast images using a Deformation Quantification and Analysis software package accessible online at http://dqa.web.cmu.edu. In our studies, fibroblast contractile machinery was observed to function entirely within pseudopods, while GFP-alpha-actinin concentrated in pseudopod tips and cortex. Complex strain patterns around individual cells showed instances of both elastic and inelastic strain transmission, suggestin

SUBMITTER: Vanni S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1302838 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature