Now published... and on the #BiophysJ cover!

Cell Adhesion Pattern Shows Conserved #Scalings under #Geometrical Control

Studying the relationship between the size and the #anatomy and #physiology of #living #organisms has proven useful in deciphering what the key physical constraints are that apply to them. For instance, total adhesive pad area is found to #scale like organism mass over a wide variety of animal species, possibly to resist against body weight.

In this study, we apply this approach at the cell scale to ask how large-scale geometrical constraints affect the organisation of #adhesion patches and the size of #cellSubstrate contact at different stages of the #cellSpreading process. Indeed, #cells, like many animals, adhere to their substrate. For that, they use specific protein complexes, called #focalAdhesions, which form patches often situated at the cell periphery.

cc @JonFouchard

https://www.biophysics.org/blog/cell-adhesion-pattern-shows-conserved-scalings-under-geometrical-control

#cellAdhesion #biophysics #allometry

Studying the relationship between the size and the #anatomy and #physiology of #living organisms has proven useful in order to decipher what the key #physical constraints are that apply to them.

Here we consider both variations of #cellSize, using a drug that blocks mitosis without inhibiting growth, and of the interactions with the substrate, by considering the different stages of the quasi-static process of #cellSpreading, but also by using confinement, and thus presenting more than one substrate for the #cell to spread on. The fibroblasts used in this study present the archetypal shape of a cell spreading on a substrate, with a central cell body which, while flattening, retains a spherical cap shape, and is surrounded by a flat #lamella. We show that this shape is preserved isometrically between the cell size and cell confinement conditions. Moreover, the length ratio that characterises it establishes early during spreading, at the time when #focalAdhesion with the substrate develop. These #adhesion patches also collectively follow an isometric scaling with respect to cell spread area, in spite of having individually a shape, size and density which is insensitive to the global cell shape. We show that this isometry follows from the restriction of the distribution of focal adhesions to the flat lamella.

Since adhesion distribution is crucially important for maintaining the cell shape, we suggest that the observed allometry may be important for the cell to face the #mechanical challenges of physiological function.