Poroelastic osmoregulation of living cell volume

Esteki, Mohammad Hadi; Malandrino, Andrea; Alemrajabi, Ali Akbar; Sheridan, Graham K.; Charras, Guillaume; Moeendarbary, Emad

Abstract

Cells maintain their volume through fine intracellular osmolarity regulation. Osmotic challenges drive fluid into or out of cells causing swelling or shrinkage, respectively. The dynamics of cell volume changes depending on the rheology of the cellular constituents and on how fast the fluid permeates through the membrane and cytoplasm. We investigated whether and how poroelasticity can describe volume dynamics in response to osmotic shocks. We exposed cells to osmotic perturbations and used defocusing epifluorescence microscopy on membrane-attached fluorescent nanospheres to track volume dynamics with high spatiotemporal resolution. We found that a poroelastic model that considers both geometrical and pressurization rates captures fluid-cytoskeleton interactions, which are rate-limiting factors in controlling volume changes at short timescales. Linking cellular responses to osmotic shocks and cell mechanics through poroelasticity can predict the cell state in health, disease, or in response to novel therapeutics.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 19, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Nov 22, 2021
• Publication Date: Dec 17, 2021
• Deposit Date: Dec 10, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 13, 2021
• Journal: iScience
• Electronic ISSN: 2589-0042
• Publisher: Elsevier BV
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 12
• Article Number: 103482
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103482
• Keywords: Multidisciplinary
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/6916566
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S258900422101453X?via%3Dihub