Hiroshi Yamada∗,†, Hirokazu Ando†
Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.1, pp. 1-12, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.001
Abstract We investigated the response of apical and basal actin stress fibers (SFs) and its dependency on cell confluency for endothelial cells subjected to cyclic stretching. Porcine aortic endothelial cells from the 2nd and 5th passages were transferred to a fibronectin-coated silicone chamber with 5000–8000 cells/cm2(isolated condition), positioning the cells apart, or with 25,000–27,000 cells/cm2(subconfluent condition), allowing cell-to-cell contact. The substrate was stretched cyclically by 0.5 Hz for 2 h with a peak strain on the substrate that was 15% in the stretch direction and –4% in the transverse direction. The actin filaments (AFs) were stained with rhodamine… More >