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PMID: 10465781 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

The actin-based nanomachine at the leading edge of migrating cells.

Biophysical journal ·Vol. 77 ·No. 3 ·1999-09-00 ·Pages 1721-32

Abraham VC, Krishnamurthi V, Taylor DL, Lanni F

Abstract

Two fundamental parameters of the highly dynamic, ultrathin lamellipodia of migrating fibroblasts have been determined-its thickness in living cells (176 +/- 14 nm), by standing-wave fluorescence microscopy, and its F-actin density (1580 +/- 613 microm of F-actin/microm(3)), via image-based photometry. In combination with data from previous studies, we have computed the density of growing actin filament ends at the lamellipodium margin (241 +/- 100/microm) and the maximum force (1.86 +/- 0.83 nN/microm) and pressure (10.5 +/- 4.8 kPa) obtainable via actin assembly. We have used cell deformability measurements (. J. Cell Sci. 44:187-200;. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 79:5327-5331) and an estimate of the force required to stall the polymerization of a single filament (. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 78:5613-5617;. Biophys. J. 65:316-324) to argue that actin assembly alone could drive lamellipodial extension directly.

MeSH Terms
3T3 Cells Actins/physiology Animals Calibration Cell Movement Cell Size Cytoplasm/physiology,ultrastructure Mice Microscopy, Electron Microscopy, Fluorescence/methods Models, Biological
Chemicals
Actins
Authors & Affiliations
4 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Abraham V C
Center for Light Microscope Imaging and Biotechnology, and Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 USA.
Krishnamurthi V
Taylor D L
Lanni F
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Article Info
Journal
Biophysical journal
Abbr.
Biophys J
ISSN
0006-3495
DOI
10.1016/S0006-3495(99)77018-9
Published
1999-09-00
Pages
1721-32
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
0370626
PMCID
PMC1300458
Subset
IM
Grants
NIAMS NIH HHS · AR32461 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1016/S0006-3495(99)77018-9 PMC Full Text View journal details
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