Biomimetic Models of the Actin Cytoskeleton

Mohrdieck, Camilla; Dalmas, Florent; Arzt, Eduard; Tharmann, R.; Claessens, Mireille Maria Anna Elisabeth; Bausch, Andreas R.; Roth, Alexander; Sackmann, E.; Schmitz, Christian; Curtis, Jennifer E.; Roos, Wouter H.; Schulz, Simon; Uhrig, Kai; Spatz, Joachim P.

doi:10.1002/smll.200600565

Cited by 21 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The typical mechanical cues include stretching, shear stress, and rigidity of substrate. Microfluidics could reconstruct these cues to cells in a precise and real‐time manner 87–89…”

Section: Cell and Microenvironment Patterningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidics for Manipulating Cells

Zheng

Sun

et al. 2012

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Microfluidics, a toolbox comprising methods for precise manipulation of fluids at small length scales (micrometers to millimeters), has become useful for manipulating cells. Its uses range from dynamic management of cellular interactions to high-throughput screening of cells, and to precise analysis of chemical contents in single cells. Microfluidics demonstrates a completely new perspective and an excellent practical way to manipulate cells for solving various needs in biology and medicine. This review introduces and comments on recent achievements and challenges of using microfluidics to manipulate and analyze cells. It is believed that microfluidics will assume an even greater role in the mechanistic understanding of cell biology and, eventually, in clinical applications.

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“…The typical mechanical cues include stretching, shear stress, and rigidity of substrate. Microfluidics could reconstruct these cues to cells in a precise and real‐time manner 87–89…”

Section: Cell and Microenvironment Patterningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidics for Manipulating Cells

Zheng

Sun

et al. 2012

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180

130

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“…Though the construction of biomimetic networks on pillar tops and using HOTs in microfluidic channels was proposed as early as 2003,115, 126 their qualitative application has been presented just recently 116. 117, 123 As a natural next step, quantitative measurements may follow in two major directions: 1) using low concentrations of F‐actin, single‐filament and single‐crosslinker interactions can be measured.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Optical tweezers usually have a force sensitivity of up to 100 pN, which makes them excellent tools for measuring single‐molecule‐level interactions. It is a straightforward extension of the pillar system to incorporate optical traps to manipulate the microparticles and to measure the forces acting on them 116. 117…”

Section: 2d F‐actin Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The phase modulation method which provides the heart of this kind of optical tweezers systems allows exotic kinds of forces, such as vortex fields, to be generated as well 128. Their application to actin networks was proposed several years ago by Schmitz et al,116, 126 but has only recently been demonstrated with qualitative crosslinking experiments 117. 123 Though the HOT system allows the simultaneous manipulation of several anchoring points, it has one drawback.…”

Section: 2d F‐actin Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biomimetic F‐Actin Cortex Models

2009

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Since its first production from muscle tissue more than 65 years ago, our knowledge about actin has come a long way. While at the beginning it was identified as a muscle protein, nowadays actin is considered as one of the most important components of the cytoskeleton, playing a crucial role in cell motility, adhesion, morphology and intracellular transport processes. In vitro models have been constructed for about 20 years to gain better insight into the chemophysical and biomechanical properties of actin networks by being able to reduce and tune its complexity. The complexity of these models ranges from single actin filaments (F-actin) in interaction with actin-associated molecules and proteins, F-actin network gels to F-actin loaded vesicles to freely suspended F-actin networks in microfluidic environments. This review summarizes the development of F-actin network models and highlights their applicability towards step-by-step construction of complex cortex mimicking systems.

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“…Existing approaches only demonstrated the construction of small networks without biologically relevant measurements 17 or rely on the stochastic attachment or growth of filaments to optically trapped beads or micro pillars which is less flexible and barely allows control of the number of attached filaments 18–20 . We use established micro-rheology techniques 21–23 to measure the time-dependent viscoelastic properties of single microtubules.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single microtubules and small networks become significantly stiffer on short time-scales upon mechanical stimulation

Koch

Schneider

Nick

2017

Sci Rep

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The transfer of mechanical signals through cells is a complex phenomenon. To uncover a new mechanotransduction pathway, we study the frequency-dependent transport of mechanical stimuli by single microtubules and small networks in a bottom-up approach using optically trapped beads as anchor points. We interconnected microtubules to linear and triangular geometries to perform micro-rheology by defined oscillations of the beads relative to each other. We found a substantial stiffening of single filaments above a characteristic transition frequency of 1–30 Hz depending on the filament’s molecular composition. Below this frequency, filament elasticity only depends on its contour and persistence length. Interestingly, this elastic behavior is transferable to small networks, where we found the surprising effect that linear two filament connections act as transistor-like, angle dependent momentum filters, whereas triangular networks act as stabilizing elements. These observations implicate that cells can tune mechanical signals by temporal and spatial filtering stronger and more flexibly than expected.

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Biomimetic Models of the Actin Cytoskeleton

Cited by 21 publications

References 40 publications

Microfluidics for Manipulating Cells

Microfluidics for Manipulating Cells

Biomimetic F‐Actin Cortex Models

Single microtubules and small networks become significantly stiffer on short time-scales upon mechanical stimulation

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