Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: B, page: 3643. Adviser: Neil L. Kelleher. Includes bibliographical references. Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

La mécanique cellulaire a gagné un intérêt croissant en raison de son implication fondamentale dans des nombreux processus cellulaires, notamment la migration, la division, la différentiation et l’apoptose. Entre autres techniques, la microscopie à force atomique (AFM) s’est avérée particulièrement utile pour la caractérisation mécanique des cellules vivantes. Dans cette thèse, deux aspects différents ont été étudiés par AFM. Dans un premier temps, l’élasticité des cellules épithéliales étalées sur des micropatterns adhésifs a été cartographiée. Cette étude montre que l’élasticité d’une cellule varie en fonction de sa géométrie d’adhésion à la fois au niveau global et subcellulaire. La deuxième partie de cette thèse est dédiée à la caractérisation de la réponse viscoélastique d’une cellule à un stimulus mécanique oscillatoire à haute fréquence. Des études précédentes montrent que la réponse des cellules est dominée par un stress élastique et suive une loi de puissance faible à basse fréquence. Une réponse cellulaire essentiellement visqueuse est attendue à haute fréquence, mais jusqu’à présent les limitations techniques ont empêché l’évaluation de cette propriété. Dans ma thèse, ces limitations ont été dépassées grâce à la modification d’un AFM à grande vitesse (HS-AFM). Des mesures de rhéologie active sur fibroblastes ont été réalisées entre 1Hz et 120 kHz, permettant d’étendre de deux ordres de grandeur l’échelle de fréquences explorée. Ce travail montre une réponse cellulaire aux stimulations à haute fréquence plus visqueuse qu’à basse fréquence, mais suggèrent aussi une réponse bien plus complexe qu’attendue. / The field of cell mechanics gained a growing interest because of its fundamental implication in several cellular processes, such as migration, division, differentiation and apoptosis. Among other techniques, atomic force microscopy (AFM) demonstrated particularly useful for the mechanical characterization of living cells. In this thesis, two different aspects were investigated by AFM. In the first part, the elastic properties of epithelial cells grown on adhesive micropatterns were mapped. This study shows that the elasticity of a cell varies as a function of the geometry of its adhesive environment on both global and subcellular scales. The second part of this thesis focuses on the characterization of the viscoelastic response of a cell subjected to an oscillatory mechanical stimulus at high frequency. Previous studies show that the response of cells to such stimuli is mainly dominated by elastic stress and follows a weak power law at low frequency. Instead, a predominantly viscous behavior is expected at high frequency. Up to now, technical limitations prevented the experimental validation of this property. In this thesis, these limitations were overcome thanks to the modification of a high-speed AFM (HS-AFM). With this setup, active rheological measurements of living fibroblasts could be performed from 1 Hz to 120 kHz, extending of two orders of magnitude the frequency scale explored until now. This work highlights a response of cells to high-frequency stimuli which is more viscous than at low frequency, but also suggests a more complex response than expected.

During mitosis, adherent animal cells undergo a drastic shape change, from essentially flat to round, in a process known as mitotic cell rounding (MCR). The aim of this thesis was to critically examine the physical and biological basis of MCR. The experimental part of this thesis employed a combined optical microscope-atomic force microscope (AFM) setup in conjunction with flat tipless cantilevers to analyze cell mechanics, shape and volume. To this end, two AFM assays were developed: the constant force assay (CFA), which applies constant force to cells and measures the resultant height, and the constant height assay (CHA), which confines cell height and measures the resultant force. These assays were deployed to analyze the shape and mechanical properties of single cells trans-mitosis. The CFA results showed that cells progressing through mitosis could increase their height against forces as high as 50 nN, and that higher forces can delay mitosis in HeLa cells. The CHA results showed that mitotic cells confined to ~50% of their normal height can generate forces around 50-100 nN without disturbing mitotic progression. Such forces represent intracellular pressures of at least 200 Pascals and cell surface tensions of around 10 nN/µm. Using the CHA to compare mitotic cell rounding with induced cell rounding, it was observed that the intracellular pressure of mitotic cells is at least 3-fold higher than rounded interphase cells. To investigate the molecular basis of the mechanical changes inherent in mitotic cell rounding, inhibitors and toxins were used to pharmacologically dissect the role of candidate cellular processes. These results implicated the actomyosin cortex and osmolyte transporters, the most prominent of which is the Na+/H+ exchanger, in the maintenance of mechanical properties and intracellular hydrostatic pressure. Observations on blebbing cells under the cantilever supported the idea that the actomyosin cortex is required to sustain hydrostatic pressure and direct this pressure into cell shape changes. To gain further insight into the relationship between actomyosin activity and intracellular pressure, dynamic perturbation experiments were conducted. To this end, the CHA was used to evaluate the pressure and volume of mitotic cells before, during and after dynamic perturbations that included tonic shocks, influx of specific inhibitors, and exposure to pore-forming toxins. When osmotic pressure gradients were depleted, pressure and volume decreased. When the actomyosin cytoskeleton was abolished, cell volume increased while rounding pressure decreased. Conversely, stimulation of actomyosin cortex contraction triggered an increase in rounding pressure and a decrease in volume. Taken together, the dynamic perturbation results demonstrated that the actomyosin cortex contracts against an opposing intracellular pressure and that this relationship sets the surface tension, pressure and volume of the cell. The discussion section of this thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the physical basis of MCR by amalgamating the experimental results of this thesis with the literature. Additionally, the biochemal signaling pathways and proteins that drive MCR are collated and discussed. An exhaustive and unprecedented synthesis of the literature on cell rounding (approx. 750 papers as pubmed search hits on “cell rounding”, April 2012) reveals that the spread-to-round transition can be thought of in terms of a surface tension versus adhesion paradigm, and that cell rounding can be physically classified into four main modes, of which one is an MCR-like category characterized by increased actomyosin cortex tension and diminution of focal adhesions. The biochemical pathways and signaling patterns that correspond with these four rounding modes are catalogued and expounded upon in the context of the relevant physiology. This analysis reveals cell rounding as a pertinent topic that can be leveraged to yield insight into core principles of cell biophysics and tissue organization. It furthermore highlights MCR as a model problem to understand the adhesion versus cell surface tension paradigm in cells and its fundamentality to cell shape, mechanics and physiology.

During mitosis, adherent animal cells undergo a drastic shape change, from essentially flat to round, in a process known as mitotic cell rounding (MCR). The aim of this thesis was to critically examine the physical and biological basis of MCR. The experimental part of this thesis employed a combined optical microscope-atomic force microscope (AFM) setup in conjunction with flat tipless cantilevers to analyze cell mechanics, shape and volume. To this end, two AFM assays were developed: the constant force assay (CFA), which applies constant force to cells and measures the resultant height, and the constant height assay (CHA), which confines cell height and measures the resultant force. These assays were deployed to analyze the shape and mechanical properties of single cells trans-mitosis. The CFA results showed that cells progressing through mitosis could increase their height against forces as high as 50 nN, and that higher forces can delay mitosis in HeLa cells. The CHA results showed that mitotic cells confined to ~50% of their normal height can generate forces around 50-100 nN without disturbing mitotic progression. Such forces represent intracellular pressures of at least 200 Pascals and cell surface tensions of around 10 nN/µm. Using the CHA to compare mitotic cell rounding with induced cell rounding, it was observed that the intracellular pressure of mitotic cells is at least 3-fold higher than rounded interphase cells. To investigate the molecular basis of the mechanical changes inherent in mitotic cell rounding, inhibitors and toxins were used to pharmacologically dissect the role of candidate cellular processes. These results implicated the actomyosin cortex and osmolyte transporters, the most prominent of which is the Na+/H+ exchanger, in the maintenance of mechanical properties and intracellular hydrostatic pressure. Observations on blebbing cells under the cantilever supported the idea that the actomyosin cortex is required to sustain hydrostatic pressure and direct this pressure into cell shape changes. To gain further insight into the relationship between actomyosin activity and intracellular pressure, dynamic perturbation experiments were conducted. To this end, the CHA was used to evaluate the pressure and volume of mitotic cells before, during and after dynamic perturbations that included tonic shocks, influx of specific inhibitors, and exposure to pore-forming toxins. When osmotic pressure gradients were depleted, pressure and volume decreased. When the actomyosin cytoskeleton was abolished, cell volume increased while rounding pressure decreased. Conversely, stimulation of actomyosin cortex contraction triggered an increase in rounding pressure and a decrease in volume. Taken together, the dynamic perturbation results demonstrated that the actomyosin cortex contracts against an opposing intracellular pressure and that this relationship sets the surface tension, pressure and volume of the cell. The discussion section of this thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the physical basis of MCR by amalgamating the experimental results of this thesis with the literature. Additionally, the biochemal signaling pathways and proteins that drive MCR are collated and discussed. An exhaustive and unprecedented synthesis of the literature on cell rounding (approx. 750 papers as pubmed search hits on “cell rounding”, April 2012) reveals that the spread-to-round transition can be thought of in terms of a surface tension versus adhesion paradigm, and that cell rounding can be physically classified into four main modes, of which one is an MCR-like category characterized by increased actomyosin cortex tension and diminution of focal adhesions. The biochemical pathways and signaling patterns that correspond with these four rounding modes are catalogued and expounded upon in the context of the relevant physiology. This analysis reveals cell rounding as a pertinent topic that can be leveraged to yield insight into core principles of cell biophysics and tissue organization. It furthermore highlights MCR as a model problem to understand the adhesion versus cell surface tension paradigm in cells and its fundamentality to cell shape, mechanics and physiology.