FIGURE 6.

Cell stiffness tracks substrate stiffness for some but not all cell types. Cortical cell stiffness measured by micropipette aspiration (circles), magnetic bead twisting cytometry (MTC; diamonds), or atomic force microscopy (AFM; triangles). Cell cortical stiffness measured by micropipette aspiration or AFM scales with substrate stiffness for adult human bone marrow stromal cells (hMSC; dark blue) but not for murine embryonic stem cells (ESC; red). Inhibition of myosin by blebbistatin abrogates stiffness response of hMSC (light blue). [From Engler et al. (60), with permission from Elsevier; and Poh et al. (176), with permission from Elsevier.]