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Publication: Combining laser microsurgery and finite element modeling to assess cell-level epithelial mechanics

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Title Combining laser microsurgery and finite element modeling to assess cell-level epithelial mechanics
Authors/Editors* M.S. Hutson, J. Veldhuis, X. Ma, H.E. Lynch, P.G. Cranston, G.W. Brodland
Where published* Biophysical Journal
How published* Journal
Year* 2009
Volume 97
Number
Pages 3075-3085
Publisher
Keywords
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Abstract
Laser microsurgery and finite element modeling are used to determine the cell-level mechanics of the amnioserosa—a morphogenetically crucial epithelium on the dorsal surface of fruit fly embryos (Drosophila melanogaster). In the experiments, a tightly focused laser ablates a subcellular hole (1 μm in diameter) that passes clean through the epithelium. The surrounding cells recoil from the wound site with a large range of initial recoil velocities. These depend on the embryo's developmental stage and the subcellular wound site. The initial recoil (up to 0.1 s) is well reproduced by a base finite element model, which assumes a uniform effective viscosity inside the cells, a constant tension along each cell-cell boundary, and a large, potentially anisotropic, far-field stress—one that far exceeds the stress equivalent of the cell-edge tensions. After 0.1 s, the experimental recoils slow dramatically. This observation can be reproduced by adding viscoelastic rods along cell edges or as a fine prestressed mesh parallel to the apical and basal membranes of the cell. The mesh also reproduces a number of double-wounding experiments in which successive holes are drilled in a single cell.
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