title: Stiffness versus prestress relationship at subcellular length scale.
abstract: Local intracellular variations of cell mechanical properties, which are essential for vital cellular functions, have not been well characterized and are poorly understood. Here, we used results from our previous biomechanical imaging study to obtain relationships between intracellular shear modulus and prestress. We found that the subcellular shear modulus vs. prestress relationships exhibited positive linear correlations, consistent with previously observed behaviors at the whole cell and tissue levels. This, in turn, suggests that the prestress may be a unifying factor that determines material properties of living matter at different length scales.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston MA, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Canović
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston MA, USA.
authors.forename: D Thomas
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Seidl
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston MA, USA.
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Barbone
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston MA, USA.
authors.forename: Michael L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston MA, USA; Division of Material Science and Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: dimitrij@bu.edu.
authors.forename: Dimitrije
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stamenović
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D051379:Mice; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
keywords: Cell mechanics; Imaging; Prestress; Stiffness; Traction forces