Pericellular Brush and Mechanics of Guinea Pig Fibroblast Cells Studied with AFM.

ABSTRACT: The atomic force microscopy (AFM) indentation method combined with the brush model can be used to separate the mechanical response of the cell body from deformation of the pericellular layer surrounding biological cells. Although self-consistency of the brush model to derive the elastic modulus of the cell body has been demonstrated, the model ability to characterize the pericellular layer has not been explicitly verified. Here we demonstrate it by using enzymatic removal of hyaluronic content of the pericellular brush for guinea pig fibroblast cells. The effect of this removal is clearly seen in the AFM force-separation curves associated with the pericellular brush layer. We further extend the brush model for brushes larger than the height of the AFM probe, which seems to be the case for

SUBMITTER: Dokukin M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4944720 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature