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New Biological Frontiers Illuminated by Molecular Sensors and Actuators
Poster Abstracts
28-POS
Board 28
Vertical Nanopillar for in Situ Probe of Nuclear Mechanotransduction
Hsin-Ya Lou
1
, Lindsey Hanson
1
, Wenting Zhao
2
, Yi Cui
2,3
, Bianxiao Cui
1
.
1
Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA,
2
Department of Material
Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA,
3
Stanford Institute for
Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford, CA, USA.
As the control center of a cell, the cell nucleus contains the cell’s genetic materials and regulates
gene expression. The stability and deformability of the cell nucleus are important to many
biological processes like migration, proliferation, polarization, and the differentiation of stem
cells. When cells are exposed to mechanical force, the force will be transmitted via cytoskeleton
to the nucleus, induce shape deformation of the nuclear envelopes, and even change the
configurations of nucleoskeletons, which give the clue that cell nucleus itself may be able to
sense and respond to mechanical signals. However, current techniques for studying nuclear
mechanics are limited for inducing subcellular force perturbation in live cells. Here we
developed a novel assay of using vertical nanopillar arrays to study the mechanical coupling
between cell nucleus and cytoskeleton in live cells. Our results showed that nanopillars can
induce deformation of nuclear envelope, and the deformation is controlled by the geometry of
the nanopillars, and the stiffness of the nucleus. Also, cytoskeletons such actin and intermediate
filaments were showed to play important roles in inducing nuclear deformation. Furthermore, we
demonstrate that mechanical perturbation of the nuclear envelope can cause the reorganization of
nuclear lamina. Overall, vertical nanopillars provide a non-invasive force to create a subcellular
perturbation and can be used as a tool for studying nuclear mechanotransduction in live cells.