Effect of Substrate Stiffness and Adhesion on Endothelial Cell Dynamics
Abstract
Cell dynamics has become an emerging field of study, with early works on migration and traction force microscopy (TFM), such as that of Dembo and Wang (1999), describing the mechanisms of cell motility. They studied mammalian fibroblasts on substrates of varying stiffness, showing that tractions strongly depend on substrate rigidity, presenting larger stresses localized mainly at the front and rear of the cell. They described how actin filaments polymerize at the leading edge, generating contractile stresses allowing the cell to retract at the rear.Schunk et al. (2024) focused on endothelial cell (EC) mechanics. They investigated EC contractility, a key behavior in cell migration promoting angiogenesis. Their TFM experiments demonstrated that increasing substrate stiffness leads to higher traction forces whereas decreasing ligand density reduces them. This highlights the importance of extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and cell-matrix binding.In this work, we focus on studying the hybrid endothelial cell line EAhy926 widely used in cardiovascular research, particularly in the study of angiogenesis. We aim to investigate the dynamics of these cells on substrates of varying stiffness by modulating ECM proteins and comparing the resulting behaviors.
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BibTeX
@article{margossian2026effect,
title = {{Effect of Substrate Stiffness and Adhesion on Endothelial Cell Dynamics}},
author = {Christelle Margossian and Daria Tsvirkun and Valérie M. Laurent and Claude Verdier},
journal = {Multidisciplinary Biomechanics Journal},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.46298/mbj.19169},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05679085v2},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Effect of Substrate Stiffness and Adhesion on Endothelial Cell Dynamics
AU - Christelle Margossian
AU - Daria Tsvirkun
AU - Valérie M. Laurent
AU - Claude Verdier
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
JO - Multidisciplinary Biomechanics Journal
DO - 10.46298/mbj.19169
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05679085v2
AB - Cell dynamics has become an emerging field of study, with early works on migration and traction force microscopy (TFM), such as that of Dembo and Wang (1999), describing the mechanisms of cell motility. They studied mammalian fibroblasts on substrates of varying stiffness, showing that tractions strongly depend on substrate rigidity, presenting larger stresses localized mainly at the front and rear of the cell. They described how actin filaments polymerize at the leading edge, generating contractile stresses allowing the cell to retract at the rear.Schunk et al. (2024) focused on endothelial cell (EC) mechanics. They investigated EC contractility, a key behavior in cell migration promoting angiogenesis. Their TFM experiments demonstrated that increasing substrate stiffness leads to higher traction forces whereas decreasing ligand density reduces them. This highlights the importance of extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and cell-matrix binding.In this work, we focus on studying the hybrid endothelial cell line EAhy926 widely used in cardiovascular research, particularly in the study of angiogenesis. We aim to investigate the dynamics of these cells on substrates of varying stiffness by modulating ECM proteins and comparing the resulting behaviors.
SN - 3076-1158
ER -