Figure 6. N‐cadherin mediated VSMC mechano‐response to pulling force.

A, schematic of the AFM experiment on isolated VSMCs. An N‐cadherin‐coated bead was mounted on the AFM cantilever and was applied to cell surface. B, schematic of the AFM pulling experiment. An AFM cantilever is a soft spring and was applied to maintain a force sufficient to maintain contact (CF) and keep the N‐cadherin‐coated bead on the VSMC surface; when the cantilever was lifted vertically in the z‐axis, a constant pulling force (PF) was applied to the cell at the bead contact site (a to b). The cell responded and the bead was pulled downward or displaced by the cell (b to c). C, bead displacement measurements indicated that VSMC resisted the pulling force applied to the N‐cadherin‐bead by locally generating force to oppose the upward z‐axis displacement. By contrast, force applied to the BSA‐coated bead directly lifted the bead away from cell surface. Bead displacement was calculated as shown in (B). One cell was used for each animal (i.e. the number of cells n equals the number of animals used for each experiment). [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]