Fig. 1: Mechanical response of epithelial cell pairs is strain rate dependent in ramp and hold experiments.
From: Sustained strain applied at high rates drives dynamic tensioning in epithelial cells
a SEM image of the single cell adhesion micro tensile tester platform used to stretch cell pairs. Scale bar: 50 μm. b Schematic diagram presenting the method used to apply strain to the cell pair. Cells (blue) were deposited on each part of the bowtie and had time to make mature junctions. Then, they were stretched at different rates, and using the deflection in island 1 (δ) and island 2 (D), the stress and strain in the cell pair was calculated. c Time course of the applied 50% strain with different rates. d Confocal images of the cells prior and post stretch application (red: F-actin; green: structure autofluorescence). The cells are stretched at 25%s−1. Scale bar. 10 μm. e Temporal evolution of stress (average of all curves for each condition ± s.e) for different rates. To make the comparison easier to visualize, we aligned the initiation of the holding phase to t = 0 s.
