title: Microsurgery-aided in-situ force probing reveals extensibility and viscoelastic properties of individual stress fibers.
abstract: Actin-myosin filament bundles (stress fibers) are critical for tension generation and cell shape, but their mechanical properties are difficult to access. Here we propose a novel approach to probe individual peripheral stress fibers in living cells through a microsurgically generated opening in the cytoplasm. By applying large deformations with a soft cantilever we were able to fully characterize the mechanical response of the fibers and evaluate their tension, extensibility, elastic and viscous properties.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Biophysics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Labouesse
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Biophysics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gabella
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Biophysics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jean-Jacques
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Meister
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Biophysics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Benoît
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vianay
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Biophysics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Alexander B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Verkhovsky
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D003584:Cytological Techniques; D004548:Elasticity; D008866:Microsurgery; D051381:Rats; D022502:Stress Fibers / Q000502:physiology*; D014783:Viscosity