84 / 88
80
New Biological Frontiers Illuminated by Molecular Sensors and Actuators
Poster Abstracts
51-POS
Board 51
Three-Dimensional Cellular Traction Force Measurement and Simulation on a Flat and
Compliant Substrate
Hsuan Yang
1,2
, Hung-Hui Li
3
, Yu-Chi Ai
1,4
, Yi-Ting Chang
3
, Jia-Yang Juang
3
, Kdng-Hui Lin
1
.
1
Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan,
2
Graduate Institute of Biophysics,
National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan,
4
Department of Physics, National Taiwan
University, Taipei, Taiwan.
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan
University, Taipei, Taiwan,
Measuring cellular traction force is essential to understand how cells process mechanical cues
from microenvironment and respond to it. Most traction force measurements focus on the shear
stress on a two-dimensional flat and compliant substrate. Recently more and more studies
investigate three-dimensional (3D) traction stress including the normal stress whose magnitude is
not negligible and play a role for cell migration speed. We present a 3D traction force method
based on finite element method to analyze the displacements of marker beads embedded in the
substrate under cell traction. We found the downward normal stress is sometimes located near
the nucleus and sometimes near the proximal of focal adhesions which both are reported in the
literature. We also perform simulation which we impose upward normal traction stress at the
distal site of focal adhesion and downward normal traction stress at the proximal site of the focal
adhesions and distribute the focal adhesions evenly on a circular cell edge. We found when the
interparticle distance between marker beads are more than focal adhesion size or the uncertainty
to displacement tracking increases, the recovered normal traction stress will deviate from the
proximal site of focal adhesions toward the nucleus. Our results suggests a high resolution 3D
traction force microscopy is necessary for consistent traction force measurement.