@article{0984779973594bd498714755ba62e829,
title = "Membrane ruffling is a mechanosensor of extracellular fluid viscosity",
abstract = "Cell behaviour is affected by the physical forces and mechanical properties of cells and 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 biocompatible polymers to increase the viscosity of the culture medium, we characterize how viscosity affects cell behaviour. We find that multiple types of adherent cell respond in an unexpected but similar manner to elevated viscosity. In a highly viscous medium, cells double their spread area, exhibit increased focal adhesion formation and turnover, generate significantly greater traction forces and migrate nearly two times faster. We observe that when cells are immersed in a regular medium, these viscosity-dependent responses require an actively ruffling lamellipodium—a dynamic membrane structure at the front of the cell. We present evidence that cells utilize membrane ruffling to sense changes in extracellular fluid viscosity and to trigger adaptive responses.",
author = "Matthew Pittman and Ernest Iu and Keva Li and Mingjiu Wang and Junjie Chen and Nilay Taneja and Jo, {Myung Hyun} and Seungman Park and Jung, {Wei Hung} and Le Liang and Ishan Barman and Taekjip Ha and Stavros Gaitanaros and Jian Liu and Dylan Burnette and Sergey Plotnikov and Yun Chen",
note = "Funding Information: We thank K. M. Fish and A. Doyle for providing scientific insight. Funding: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute F31 HL154709 (M.P.); National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering S10 OD025193 and National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering R21 EB029677 (Y.C. and J.C.); Air Force Office of Scientific Research 21RT0264—FA9550-21-1-0284 (Y.C.); National Cancer Institute F99 CA253759 (W.-H.J.); Canadian Institutes of Health Research (PJT-178272) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2020-05881) (S. Plotikov); Ontario Graduate Scholarship and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada PGS-D (E.I.); National Science Foundation 137959 (J.L.). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.",
year = "2022",
month = sep,
doi = "10.1038/s41567-022-01676-y",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "18",
pages = "1112--1121",
journal = "Nature Physics",
issn = "1745-2473",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "9",
}