Viscoelastic properties of epithelial cells: 3D structures and composite elements

by Amaury Perez Tirado
Doctoral thesis
Date of Examination:2024-10-07
Date of issue:2025-03-14
Advisor:Prof. Dr. Andreas Janshoff
Referee:Prof. Dr. Andreas Janshoff
Referee:Prof. Dr. Sarah Koester
Persistent Address: http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-11151

 

 

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Abstract

English

Epithelial cells form complex, polarized layers in the body to cover organs and cavities. While the mechanical properties of single cells and 2D monolayers have been extensively studied, recent research suggests that 3D structures provide a more accurate representation of in vivo conditions. In this work we proposed a tension-based viscoelastic model to investigate the mechanical properties of the 3D hollow structures atomic force microscopy. Hemicysts and cysts were made of MDCK II cells, creating two types of monolayer cavities with opposite polarity, allowing the measurements of the apical and basal membrane domain, respectively. We found that the basal side of the tissue is stiffer, while the apical side exhibited a more liquid-like behavior. Cysts, as a model of study, were used to determine the contributions of the composite elements. Our results indicate that the viscoelastic properties at tissue scale behave similar to single-cell scale, at short timescale, suggesting that the cytoskeleton's rheology play a crucial role in determining tissue mechanics. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the cell-cell junctions in cysts form a robust system that compensates for the lost of E-cadherin, a component of the adherens junctions, but it compromises integrity of the tissue by disturbing the tight junctions.
Keywords: epithelial cells; cell polarity; tissue mechanics; viscoelasticity; tissue tension
 
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