Fig. 7.

Substrate elasticity influences spreading and antibody-directed drug treatment of cancer cells. (A) Human lung cancer epithelial cells (A549) spread on collagen I coated rigid substrates, but 4 kPa gels induce little cell spreading. Images show viable cells are red-stained with mito-tracker dye, but the dye disperses to cytoplasm and changes to green with cell death. (B) Addition of an apoptosis inducing antibody against CD47 (B6H12) has little effect on the viability of cells on soft gels, but is effective against cells spread on rigid substrates. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)