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ARUP; ISBN: 978-0-9562121-5-3 - CMBBE 2012 - Cardiff University

ARUP; ISBN: 978-0-9562121-5-3 - CMBBE 2012 - Cardiff University

ARUP; ISBN: 978-0-9562121-5-3 - CMBBE 2012 - Cardiff University

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EVALUATING STIFFNESS DISTRIBUTIONS OF DIFFERENTIATING<br />

ADIPOCYTES USING A WIDE-FIELD DIGITAL<br />

INTERFEROMETRIC METHOD<br />

1. ABSTRACT<br />

N. Shoham, P. Girshovitz, N.T. Shaked and A. Gefen 1<br />

Adipocytes, which are physiologically exposed to body loads in weight-bearing adipose<br />

tissues, are recently becoming recognized as mechanoresponsive cells, with mechanical<br />

stimuli influencing both their commitment to the adipocyte phenotype and the<br />

adipogenesis process in these cells. Mechanoresponsiveness of adipocytes is relevant to<br />

understanding the connection between a sedentary lifestyle and obesity. In particular,<br />

the extent of lipid production in these cells was found to depend on the level of cellular<br />

strains. Hence, it is important to characterize the stiffness distributions of differentiating<br />

adipocytes, which directly influence the extent of cellular deformations when adipose<br />

tissues are weight-bearing. Using wide field digital interferometric microscopy, we<br />

evaluated stiffnesses of adipocytes. First, we acquired 315 interferograms at ~21<br />

frames/s. Each interferogram was composed of interference between two beams of light<br />

originating from the same coherent laser source, where one of the beams passed through<br />

the culture and the other beam directly reached the camera. Second, the optical<br />

thickness of the cell was calculated for each interferogram. Third, temporal changes in<br />

cell optical thicknesses (optical fluctuations) were converted into an optical spring<br />

factor of the cell, which indicates on cell stiffness. The optical spring factor calculated<br />

in the cytoplasm of the adipocyte was 0.55±0.03 µN/m, significantly smaller than in the<br />

lipid areas (p

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