Figure 2.

Cadherin-coated tools to apply and measure force in a single cell in vitro. A) Cadherin-Fc chimera (cadherin extracellular domain (C-ECD) coupled to IgG Fc fragment (purple)) is immobilized on rigid surface. Binding occurs between the C-ECD of the chimera and the C-ECD of the cell. B) A cell seeded on microneedles coated with cadherin-FC chimera applies traction forces through cadherin-mediated adhesions that cause measurable deflections of the microdneedles. C) Single C2 myogenic cells on microneedle substrate spread and exert mapable traction forces through cadherin-mediated binding. Arrows indicate magnitude and direction of traction forces exerted by the cell (Ganz et al., 2006). D) Deformable polyacrylamide gels with immobilized cadherin-Fc chimera on their surface allow cells to bind and exert traction forces through cadherin-mediated adhesions. E) Single myocyte cells plated on cadherin-coated substrates (polyacrylamide gels or glass) of varying rigidity exhibit stiffness-dependent cell spreading. F-actin (red); α-actinin (green). Scale bars = 10 μm (Chopra et al., 2011). F) Magnetic beads with immobilized cadherin-FC chimera bind to cell surface and exert a shear force through cadherin adhesions when rotated. G) (i) The measured displacement of an E-cadherin(E-cad)- or poly-L-lysine(PL)-coated bead on the surface of an F9 cell under a 0.3 Hz oscillatory magnetic field for one minute. (ii) Stiffening of the cell as a result of cadherin-coated bead-applied shear relative to unperturbed cadherin-coated bead-cell adhesion was modulated by treatment with blebbistatin, to inhibit actin contractility, or Latrunculin B (LatB) or Cytochalasin D (CytoD) to disrupt actin polymerization (le Duc et al., 2010).