Universal Kinetics of the Onset of Cell Spreading on Substrates of Different Stiffness.

ABSTRACT: When plated onto substrates, cell morphology and even stem-cell differentiation are influenced by the stiffness of their environment. Stiffer substrates give strongly spread (eventually polarized) cells with strong focal adhesions and stress fibers; very soft substrates give a less developed cytoskeleton and much lower cell spreading. The kinetics of this process of cell spreading is studied extensively, and important universal relationships are established on how the cell area grows with time. Here, we study the population dynamics of spreading cells, investigating the characteristic processes involved in the cell response to the substrate. We show that unlike the individual cell morphology, this population dynamics does not depend on the substrate stiffness. Instead, a strong activation

SUBMITTER: Bell S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6369430 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature