Mechanical characterization of Xenopus laevis oocytes using atomic force microscopy.

Autor: Kardashina T; Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM, USA., Serrano EE; Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM, USA., Dawson JA; Department of Economics, Applied Statistics, and International Business, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM, USA., Drach B; Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM, USA. Electronic address: borys@nmsu.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials [J Mech Behav Biomed Mater] 2024 Sep; Vol. 157, pp. 106648. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jul 05.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2024.106648
Abstrakt: Mechanical properties are essential for the biological activities of cells, and they have been shown to be affected by diseases. Therefore, accurate mechanical characterization is important for studying the cell lifecycle, cell-cell interactions, and disease diagnosis. While the cytoskeleton and actin cortex are typically the primary structural stiffness contributors in most live cells, oocytes possess an additional extracellular layer known as the vitelline membrane (VM), or envelope, which can significantly impact their overall mechanical properties. In this study, we utilized nanoindentation via an atomic force microscope to measure the Young's modulus of Xenopus laevis oocytes at different force setpoints and explored the influence of the VM by conducting measurements on oocytes with the membrane removed. The findings revealed that the removal of VM led to a significant decrease in the apparent Young's modulus of the oocytes, highlighting the pivotal role of the VM as the main structural component responsible for the oocyte's shape and stiffness. Furthermore, the mechanical behavior of VM was investigated through finite element (FE) simulations of the nanoindentation process. FE simulations with the VM Young's modulus in the range 20-60 MPa resulted in force-displacement curves that closely resemble experimental in terms of shape and maximum force for a given indentation depth.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Elba E Serrano reports financial support was provided by National Science Foundation. Borys Drach reports financial support was provided by National Science Foundation. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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