Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Singapore

Mechanobiology of Disease

Poster Abstracts

45-POS Board 45 Mechanosensitivity of Human Bladder and Prostate Cancerous Cells Malgorzata Lekka . The Institute of Nuclear Physics PAS, Cracow, Poland.

Altered mechanical properties of microenvironment surrounding cells influence various processes such as cellular differentiation, migration, proliferation, and also cell-cell and/or cell- ECM adhesion [1]. There is much evidence showing that on hydrogels substrates, mimicking viscoelastic properties of ECM, cellular response of normal and stem cells is stiffness-depended. In most cases, on highly rigid hydrogels, cells spread extensively, form prominent stress fibres and mature focal adhesions [2]. Understanding the relation between ECM mechanics and cellular response is particularly important in the context of cancer progression, which is typically associated with alterations in rigidity due to local accumulation of a dense, crosslinked proteins network [3]. With the development of new techniques that enable to probe elastic properties of single cells, it is now possible to identify and detect a single, mechanically altered cell [4]. Using this approach, it has been shown that cancerous cells are mostly more deformable (i.e. they are softer) [5]. Simultaneously, cellular elasticity can be used to monitor changes occurring in response to interactions with ECM components and also with neighbouring cells. In our studies, we have focused on mechanosensitive properties of human bladder and prostate cancerous cells originating from various stages of cancer progression. The obtained results showed distinct cellular responses depending on the actin organization, type of ligand and the presence of neighbouring cells. Our results relates changes in cancer cell biomechanics (elasticity) with cellular morphology and metastatic phenotype [6]. References: [1] Paszek et al. Cancer Cell 2005 8:241. [2] Tee et al. Biophys. J. 100: L25–27 (2011). [3] McGrail et al. J. Cell Sci. 127 2621-2626 (2014). [4] Guck et al. Integr. Biol. 2010 2:575. [5] Lekka et al. Micron 43(12) (2012): 1259-1266. [6] The work has been financed by the NCN project no UMO-2014/15/B/ST4/04737.

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