Figure 5. Disruption of the cytoskeleton and swelling alters Piezo1 sensitivity. Panel (A) shows typical current traces from two cells (control and cytoD) with and without swelling. Hypotonic swelling greatly enhanced the indentation sensitivity (-60 mV holding potential and 4 μm indentation) resulting in a 6-fold increase in current compared with control (B). Treatment with cytoD reduced the mean response by 11-fold but that response was potentiated by hypotonic swelling suggesting that there are at least two modes of stress transfer. Panel (B) summarizes these results (squares) and shows that treatment of cells with cytoD suppresses the activity of Piezo1 (triangles) compared with the control (circles). Panel (C) is the mean peak current (± SD) from many cells subjected to swelling or cytoD.