Student: Rufus Joe Benedict Nelapati
Committee: Dr. Kuei-Chun Wang
Abstract:
The objective of this project is to study how substrate rigidity, a critical biophysical cue, modulates vascular endothelial cell (ECs) morphology. The ECM’s mechanical forces have been largely overlooked, according to the literatures it has been recently discovered to play a critical role in progression of the disease. Polyacrylamide gels with rigidities of 4.43kPa, 19.66kPa and 40.40kPa are prepared by modifying the compositions of acrylamide and bis-acrylamide in vitro. Once the gels are prepared, ECs are seeded onto gels and incubated at 370C for 24hours. At the end of incubation, the cultured ECs on gel with different rigidities are examined to find out the spread morphology. To study the spread morphology, phalloidin staining for stress fibers is performed on the ECs. Images with a magnification of 20x obtained from stress fiber staining are analyzed using imageJ to measure the area, perimeter and circularity of the ECs by considering 100 cells per rigidity. In conclusion it is shown that stiff substrate, would upregulate the cell morphology than the cells on soft gel. Stiff gel has a larger average cell area and perimeter than a soft gel, which is statistically significant.
Zoom Room: https://asu.zoom.us/j/8060396630
Presentation Time: 12:00-1:00 PM (Arizona Time)
