Lee, Sang-Myung Thi-Huong Nguyen Na, Kyounghwan Cho, Il-Joo Woo, Dong Ho Oh, Jae-Eung Lee, C. Justin Yoon, Eui-Sung 2024-01-20T08:02:45Z 2024-01-20T08:02:45Z 2021-09-05 2015-01 1549-3296 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/125936 Astrocytes are known to serve as scaffolding cells that shape the brain. The physical properties of astrocytes, such as stiffness, are important for their scaffolding function. These properties may be altered in certain pathological conditions, such as in brain cancer. However, actual stiffness of astrocytes is not yet well understood. Here, we report that the astrocyte stiffness is positively correlated with the density of cytoskeletal proteins, such as actin filaments, microtubules, and intermediate filaments. The value of the stiffness of astrocytes as measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) increases 38-fold in five-week-old rats compared to postnatal-day zero pups. Using multicolor confocal microscopy, we found that the complexity of cytoskeletal proteins, such as actin filaments, microtubules, and intermediate filaments, increase as the animal gets older. Our findings indicate that the change of stiffness positively correlates with the maturation of cytoskeletal proteins, and suggest that AFM can be useful as an analytical and diagnostic tool for neuroscience. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 103A: 365-370, 2015. English WILEY INTERMEDIATE-FILAMENTS INDENTATION MORPHOLOGY NEURONS CELLS Nanomechanical measurement of astrocyte stiffness correlated with cytoskeletal maturation Article 10.1002/jbm.a.35174 1 JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS RESEARCH PART A, v.103, no.1, pp.365 - 370 JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS RESEARCH PART A 103 1 365 370 scie scopus 000345572100041 2-s2.0-84912522086 Engineering, Biomedical Materials Science, Biomaterials Engineering Materials Science Article INTERMEDIATE-FILAMENTS INDENTATION MORPHOLOGY NEURONS CELLS atomic force microscopy astrocyte cell stiffness ex vivo culture cytoskeletal structure