Spontaneous Spatial Correlation of Elastic Modulus in Jammed Epithelial Monolayers Observed by AFM.

ABSTRACT: For isolated single cells on a substrate, the intracellular stiffness, which is often measured as the Young's modulus, E, by atomic force microscopy (AFM), depends on the substrate rigidity. However, little is known about how the E of cells is influenced by the surrounding cells in a cell population system in which cells physically and tightly contact adjacent cells. In this study, we investigated the spatial heterogeneities of E in a jammed epithelial monolayer in which cell migration was highly inhibited, allowing us to precisely measure the spatial distribution of E in large-scale regions by AFM. The AFM measurements showed that E can be characterized using two spatial correlation lengths: the shorter correlation length, l_S, is within the single cell size, whereas the longer

SUBMITTER: Fujii Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6428959 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature