Fig. 4.

Myosin II is essential for force generation by B cells. a Genetic approach used to ablate Myosin IIA specifically in B cells: MyoII Flox mice are crossed with CRE + mice under CD21 promoter. b Absolute number of CD19-positive B cells in myosin II WT and KO mice inguinal lymph node (each dot represents one mice, two independent experiments, error bars represents mean ± SEM, Mann–Whitney test was performed for statistical analysis). c Absolute number of germinal center B cells in inguinal lymph node and d draining lymph node in myosin II WT and KO beads immunized mice (each dot represents one mouse, two independent experiments, error bars represent median ± IQR, Mann–Whitney test was performed for statistical analysis). e Histology image of draining lymph node from immunized mice showing B cells (B220), germinal centers (GL7), and sub-capsular sinus macrophages (CD169); images highlight scattered germinal center B cells in myosin II KO mice. f Time-lapse images of stress color maps for myosin II KO and WT conditions, forces are almost absent in myosin II KO cells. g Average energy profile for myosin II KO and WT conditions, error bars represent Mean ± SEM (n = 22, 23, four independent experiments, four mice). h Summary statistics of plateau of strain energy for myosin II KO and WT, error bars represent median ± IQR (n = 22, 23, four independent experiments, four mice), Mann–Whitney test was performed for statistical analysis. Source data are provided as a Source Data file