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Desroches S, Harris AR. Quantifying cytoskeletal organization from optical microscopy data. Front Cell Dev Biol 2024; 11:1327994. [PMID: 38234685 PMCID: PMC10792062 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2023.1327994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 01/19/2024] Open
Abstract
The actin cytoskeleton plays a pivotal role in a broad range of physiological processes including directing cell shape and subcellular organization, determining cell mechanical properties, and sensing and transducing mechanical forces. The versatility of the actin cytoskeleton arises from the ability of actin filaments to assemble into higher order structures through their interaction with a vast set of regulatory proteins. Actin filaments assemble into bundles, meshes, and networks, where different combinations of these structures fulfill specific functional roles. Analyzing the organization and abundance of different actin structures from optical microscopy data provides a valuable metric for assessing cell physiological function and changes associated with disease. However, quantitative measurements of the size, abundance, orientation, and distribution of different types of actin structure remains challenging both from an experimental and image analysis perspective. In this review, we summarize image analysis methods for extracting quantitative values that can be used for characterizing the organization of actin structures and provide selected examples. We summarize the potential sample types and metric reported with different approaches as a guide for selecting an image analysis strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Desroches
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
- Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Andrew R. Harris
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
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Grolleman J, van Engeland NCA, Raza M, Azimi S, Conte V, Sahlgren CM, Bouten CVC. Environmental stiffness restores mechanical homeostasis in vimentin-depleted cells. Sci Rep 2023; 13:18374. [PMID: 37884575 PMCID: PMC10603057 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-44835-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent experimental evidence indicates a role for the intermediate filament vimentin in regulating cellular mechanical homeostasis, but its precise contribution remains to be discovered. Mechanical homeostasis requires a balanced bi-directional interplay between the cell's microenvironment and the cellular morphological and mechanical state-this balance being regulated via processes of mechanotransduction and mechanoresponse, commonly referred to as mechanoreciprocity. Here, we systematically analyze vimentin-expressing and vimentin-depleted cells in a swatch of in vitro cellular microenvironments varying in stiffness and/or ECM density. We find that vimentin-expressing cells maintain mechanical homeostasis by adapting cellular morphology and mechanics to micromechanical changes in the microenvironment. However, vimentin-depleted cells lose this mechanoresponse ability on short timescales, only to reacquire it on longer time scales. Indeed, we find that the morphology and mechanics of vimentin-depleted cell in stiffened microenvironmental conditions can get restored to the homeostatic levels of vimentin-expressing cells. Additionally, we observed vimentin-depleted cells increasing collagen matrix synthesis and its crosslinking, a phenomenon which is known to increase matrix stiffness, and which we now hypothesize to be a cellular compensation mechanism for the loss of vimentin. Taken together, our findings provide further insight in the regulating role of intermediate filament vimentin in mediating mechanoreciprocity and mechanical homeostasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janine Grolleman
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Soft Tissue Engineering and Mechanobiology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5612AE, The Netherlands
- Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5600MB, The Netherlands
| | - Nicole C A van Engeland
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Soft Tissue Engineering and Mechanobiology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5612AE, The Netherlands
- Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5600MB, The Netherlands
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Cell Biology, Åbobo Akademi University, 20520, Turku, Finland
| | - Minahil Raza
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Information Technology, Åbobo Akademi University, 20500, Turku, Finland
| | - Sepinoud Azimi
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Information Technology, Åbobo Akademi University, 20500, Turku, Finland
- Department of Information and Communication Technology, Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600GA, The Netherlands
| | - Vito Conte
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Soft Tissue Engineering and Mechanobiology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5612AE, The Netherlands.
- Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5600MB, The Netherlands.
- Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, 08036, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Cecilia M Sahlgren
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Soft Tissue Engineering and Mechanobiology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5612AE, The Netherlands.
- Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5600MB, The Netherlands.
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Cell Biology, Åbobo Akademi University, 20520, Turku, Finland.
| | - Carlijn V C Bouten
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Soft Tissue Engineering and Mechanobiology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5612AE, The Netherlands.
- Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5600MB, The Netherlands.
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