Two characteristic regimes in frequency-dependent dynamic reorientation of fibroblasts on cyclically stretched substrates.

ABSTRACT: Cells adherent on a cyclically stretched substrate with a periodically varying uniaxial strain are known to dynamically reorient nearly perpendicular to the strain direction. We investigate the dynamic reorientation of rat embryonic and human fibroblast cells over a range of stretching frequency from 0.0001 to 20 s(-1) and strain amplitude from 1% to 15%. We report quantitative measurements that show that the mean cell orientation changes exponentially with a frequency-dependent characteristic time from 1 to 5 h. At subconfluent cell densities, this characteristic time for reorientation shows two characteristic regimes as a function of frequency. For frequencies below 1 s(-1), the characteristic time decreases with a power law as the frequency increases. For frequencies above 1 s(-1), it s

SUBMITTER: Jungbauer S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2547421 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature