Creep function of a single living cell

¹ LBHP

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: asnacios{at}ccr.jussieu.fr.

Submitted on July 23, 2004
Revised on August 20, 2004
Accepted on 12 November 2004

	Abstract

We used a novel uniaxial stretching rheometer to measure the creep function J(t) of an isolated living cell. We show, for the first time at the scale of the whole cell, that J(t)behaves as a power-law J(t)=At. For N=43 mice myoblasts (C2-7), we find = 0.24 ±0.01 and A = (2.4 ± 0.3) 10^-3 Pa^-1s-. Using Laplace Transforms, we compare A and to the parameters G₀ and of the complex modulus G*()=G₀ measured by other authors using Magnetic Twisting Cytometry and AFM. Excellent agreement between A and G₀ on the one hand, and between and on the other hand, indicated that power-law is an intrinsic feature of cell mechanics and not the signature of a particular technique. Moreover, the agreement between measurements at very different size scales, going from a few tens of nanometers to the scale of the whole cell, suggests that self similarity could be a central feature of cell mechanical structure. Finally, we show that the power-law behavior could explain previous results first interpreted as instantaneous elasticity. Thus, we think that living cell must definitely be thought as a material with a large and continuous distribution of relaxation time constants which can not be described by models with a finite number of springs and dash-pots.

Key Words: cytoskeleton, microplates, power-law, rheology, self similarity, uniaxial stretching

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