http://dx.doi.org – Mechanical properties of living cells are important for cell shape, motility, and cellular responses to biochemical and biophysical signals. Although these properties are predominantly determined by the cytoskeleton, relatively little is known about the mechanical organization of cells at a subcellular level. We have studied the cell cortex of bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells (BPAECs) using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and confocal fluorescence microscopy (CFM). Read more »

http://www.springerlink.com – Focal adhesion proteins link cell surface integrins and intracellular actin stress fibers and therefore play an important role in mechanotransduction and cell motility. When endothelial cells are subjected to cyclic mechanical strain, time-lapse imaging revealed that cells underwent significant morphological changes with their resultant long axes aligned away from the strain direction. To explore how this response is regulated by focal adhesion-associated proteins the expression levels of paxillin, focal adhesion kinase (FAK), and zyxin were knocked down using gene silencing techniques. Read more »