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Cell membrane softening in human breast and cervical cancer cells

Biomechanical properties are key to many cellular functions such as cell division and cell motility and
thus are crucial in the development and understanding of several diseases, for instance cancer. The
mechanics of the cellular cytoskeleton have been extensively characterized in cells and artificial
systems. The rigidity of the plasma membrane, with the exception of red blood cells, is unknown and
membrane rigidity measurements only exist for vesicles composed of a few synthetic lipids. In this
study, thermal fluctuations of giant plasma membrane vesicles (GPMVs) directly derived from the
plasma membranes of primary breast and cervical cells, as well as breast cell lines, are analyzed. Cell
blebs or GPMVs were studied via thermal membrane fluctuations and mass spectrometry. It will be
shown that cancer cell membranes are significantly softer than their non-malignant counterparts. This
can be attributed to a loss of fluid raft forming lipids in malignant cells. These results indicate that the
reduction of membrane rigidity promotes aggressive blebbing motion in invasive cancer cells.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:80388
Date12 August 2022
CreatorsHändel, Chris, Schmidt, B.U. Sebastian, Schiller, Jürgen, Dietrich, Undine, Möhn, Till, Kießling, Tobias R., Pawlizak, Steve, Fritsch, Anatol W., Horn, Lars-Christian, Briest, Susanne, Höckel, Michael, Zink, Mareike, Käs, Josef A.
PublisherIOP Publishing
Source SetsHochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Relation083008

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