Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW E
Volume 79, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.79.051920
Keywords
biochemistry; cellular biophysics; free energy; molecular biophysics; physiological models
Categories
Funding
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion [SAF2008-02991, NAN2004-09348, FIS2007-61433, FIS-PI081908]
- Generalitat de Catalunya [SGR05-00688]
- Departament d'Innovacio i Empresa of the Catalan Government
- European Social Fund
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The cytoskeleton (CSK) is a nonequilibrium polymer network that uses hydrolyzable sources of free energy such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to remodel its internal structure. As in inert nonequilibrium soft materials, CSK remodeling has been associated with structural rearrangements driven by energy-activated processes. We carry out particle tracking and traction microscopy measurements of alveolar epithelial cells at various temperatures and ATP concentrations. We provide the first experimental evidence that the remodeling dynamics of the CSK is driven by structural rearrangements over free-energy barriers induced by thermally activated forces mediated by ATP. The measured activation energy of these forces is similar to 40k(B)T(r) (k(B) being the Boltzmann constant and T-r being the room temperature). Our experiments provide clues to understand the analogy between the dynamics of the living CSK and that of inert nonequilibrium soft materials.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available