Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 148102 (2001) [4 pages]Scaling the Microrheology of Living Cells |
PRL Celebrates 50 Years
This Week's Milestone Letters are from 1973: |
Ben Fabry1 *, Geoffrey N. Maksym2, James P. Butler1, Michael Glogauer3, Daniel Navajas4, and Jeffrey J. Fredberg1
1Physiology Program, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
2School of Biomedical Engineering, Dalhousie University, 5981 University Avenue, Halifax B3H 3J5, Canada
3Division of Experimental Medicine, Harvard Medical School, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
4Unitat Biofísica i Bioenginyeria, Universitat de Barcelona-IDIBAPS, Casanova 143, 08036 Barcelona, Spain
Received 27 November 2000; published 13 September 2001
We report a scaling law that governs both the elastic and frictional properties of a wide variety of living cell types, over a wide range of time scales and under a variety of biological interventions. This scaling identifies these cells as soft glassy materials existing close to a glass transition, and implies that cytoskeletal proteins may regulate cell mechanical properties mainly by modulating the effective noise temperature of the matrix. The practical implications are that the effective noise temperature is an easily quantified measure of the ability of the cytoskeleton to deform, flow, and reorganize.
©2001 The American Physical Society
URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v87/e148102
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.148102
PACS: 87.16.Ka, 64.70.Pf, 83.85.Vb, 87.19.Rr
* Corresponding author. Email address: bfabry@hsph.harvard.edu
See Also
Focus Story: Phys. Rev. Focus 8, story 16
[ Abstract | Previous article | Next article | Issue 14 ]
About PROLA | Terms and Conditions | Subscriptions | Search | Help
Content in PROLA © 2008 by The American Physical Society All rights reserved. PROLA™ is a trademark of The American Physical Society. Use of APS online journals implies that the user has read and agrees to the Terms and Conditions in the Subscription Agreement.