Microrheology, stress fluctuations, and active behavior of living cells.
We report the first measurements of the intrinsic strain fluctuations of living cells using a recently developed tracer correlation technique along with a theoretical framework for interpreting such data in heterogeneous media with nonthermal driving. The fluctuations' spatial and temporal correlations indicate that the cytoskeleton can be treated as a course-grained continuum with power-law rheology, driven by a spatially random stress tensor field. Combined with recent cell rheology results, our data imply that intracellular stress fluctuations have a nearly 1/omega2 power spectrum, as expected for a continuum with a slowly evolving internal prestress.
Lau
A W C
AW
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Hoffman
B D
BD
Davies
A
A
Crocker
J C
JC
Lubensky
T C
TC
D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D004548:Elasticity; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D012212:Rheology / Q000379:methods*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014783:Viscosity