Fig. 5: Substrate stiffness has a minor effect on the hexanematic organization.
From: Hexanematic crossover in epithelial monolayers depends on cell adhesion and cell density
MDCK-II WT and E-cad KO cells were cultured on PAA gels with stiffness of 49 kPa and 25 kPa. a The mean shape index increases with the mean cell-cell distance, Rcc. Statistics: 25 kPa substrate: D1: NWT = 62; D2: NWT = 13 and NKO = 54; D3: NWT = 6 and NKO = 23; D4: NWT = 12 and NKO = 4; 49 kPa substrate: D1: NWT = 11; D2: NWT = 20 and NKO = 48; D3: NWT = 20 and NKO = 91; D4: NWT = 21 and NKO = 5 from three to five independent experiments. Error bars represent the standard deviation. b, c On single-cell scale, the mean hexatic shape function, 〈|γ6|〉, is always larger compared to 〈|γ2|〉. Statistics: 25 kPa substrate: D1: NWT = 7603; D2: NWT = 1025 and NKO = 3976; D3: NWT = 282 and NKO = 1282; D4: NWT = 415 and NKO = 154; 49 kPa substrate: D1: NWT = 1108; D2: NWT = 1554 and NKO = 3480; D3: NWT = 985 and NKO = 4667; D4: NWT = 753 and NKO = 201 from three to five independent experiments. Error bars represent the standard deviation. d The hexanematic crossover scale versus the mean cell-cell distance. Independent of PAA stiffness, MDCK-II WT cells exhibit a stronger dependence on monolayer density compared to E-cad KO cells, as demonstrated by the larger slope of the data. Dotted lines represent the fits of Fig. 3h for cells on non-coated glass. e MDCK-II WT cells cultured on non-coated glass appear more isotropic and have a less prominent actin stress fiber network. f MDCK-II E-cad KO cells cultured on non-coated glass are stretched and show strong F-actin fibers (red, F-actin, green, ZO-1, and blue, nuclei). F-actin co-staining of WT and E-cad KO cells yielded similar results with a total of 146 and 109 images, respectively. Source data are provided as Source Data file.
