Institute for Physical Chemistry, University of Goettingen, Tammannstr. 6, 37077 Goettingen, Germany.
Biochem Soc Trans. 2021 Dec 17;49(6):2687-2695. doi: 10.1042/BST20210476.
Epithelial cells form tight barriers that line both the outer and inner surfaces of organs and cavities and therefore face diverse environmental challenges. The response to these challenges relies on the cells' dynamic viscoelastic properties, playing a pivotal role in many biological processes such as adhesion, growth, differentiation, and motility. Therefore, the cells usually adapt their viscoelastic properties to mirror the environment that determines their fate and vitality. Albeit not a high-throughput method, atomic force microscopy is still among the dominating methods to study the mechanical properties of adherent cells since it offers a broad range of forces from Piconewtons to Micronewtons at biologically significant time scales. Here, some recent work of deformation studies on epithelial cells is reviewed with a focus on viscoelastic models suitable to describe force cycle measurements congruent with the architecture of the actin cytoskeleton. The prominent role of the cortex in the cell's response to external forces is discussed also in the context of isolated cortex extracts on porous surfaces.
上皮细胞形成紧密的屏障，排列在器官和腔的内外表面，因此面临着多样化的环境挑战。细胞对这些挑战的反应依赖于其动态粘弹性特性，在许多生物学过程中发挥着关键作用，如黏附、生长、分化和迁移。因此，细胞通常会调整其粘弹性特性以适应环境，从而决定其命运和活力。尽管原子力显微镜不是一种高通量的方法，但它仍然是研究黏附细胞力学特性的主要方法之一，因为它可以在生物意义重大的时间尺度上提供从皮牛顿到微牛顿的广泛力范围。本文综述了上皮细胞变形研究的一些最新进展，重点介绍了与肌动蛋白细胞骨架结构一致的适合描述力循环测量的粘弹性模型。还讨论了皮层在细胞对外力响应中的突出作用，以及在多孔表面上分离的皮层提取物的背景下。
