Matthew Pittman, Ernest Iu, Keva Li, Mingjiu Wang, Junjie Chen, Nilay Taneja, Myung Hyun Jo, Seungman Park, Wei-Hung Jung, Le Liang, Ishan Barman, Taekjip Ha, Stavros Gaitanaros, Jian Liu, Dylan Burnette, Sergey Plotnikov, Yun Chen
Cell behaviour is affected by the physical forces and mechanical properties of the cells and of their microenvironment. The viscosity of extracellular fluid - a component of the cellular microenvironment - can vary by orders of magnitude, but its effect on cell behaviour remains largely unexplored. Using bio-compatible polymers to increase the viscosity of the culture medium, we characterize how viscosity affects cell behaviour. We find that multiple types of adherent cells respond in an unexpected but similar manner to elevated viscosity...
September 2022: Nature Physics