In vitro gentamicin exposure alters caveolae protein profile in cochlear spiral ligament pericytes.

BACKGROUND: The aminoglycoside antibiotic gentamicin is an ototoxic drug and has been used experimentally to investigate cochlear damage induced by noise.We have investigated the changes in the protein profile associated with caveolae in gentamicin treated and untreated spiral ligament (SL) pericytes, specialized cells in the blood labyrinth barrier of the inner ear microvasculature. Pericytes from various microvascular beds express caveolae, protein and cholesterol rich microdomains, which can undergo endocytosis and transcytosis to transport small molecules in and out the cells. A different protein profile in transport-specialized caveolae may induce pathological changes affecting the integrity of the blood labyrinth barrier and ultimately contributing to hearing loss. METHOD: Caveolae isolation from treated and untreated cells is achieved through ultracentrifugation of the lysates in discontinuous gradients. Mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis identifies the proteins in the two groups. Proteins segregating with caveolae isolated from untreated SL pericytes are then compared to caveolae isolated from SL pericytes treated with the gentamicin for 24 h. Data are analyzed using bioinformatic tools. RESULTS: The caveolae proteome in gentamicin treated cells shows that 40% of total proteins are uniquely associated with caveolae during the treatment, and 15% of the proteins normally associated with caveolae in untreated cell are suppressed. Bioinformatic analysis of the data shows a decreased expression of proteins involved in genetic information processing, and an increase in proteins involved in metabolism, vesicular transport and signal transduction in gentamicin treated cells. Several Rab GTPases proteins, ubiquitous transporters, uniquely segregate with caveolae and are significantly enriched in gentamicin treated cells. CONCLUSION: We report that gentamicin exposure modifies protein profile of caveolae from SL pericytes. We identified a pool of proteins which are uniquely segregating with caveolae during the treatment, mainly participating in metabolic and biosynthetic pathways, in transport pathways and in genetic information processing. Finally, we show for the first time proteins associated with caveolae SL pericytes linked to nonsyndromic hearing loss.

Non-equilibrium cytoquake dynamics in cytoskeletal remodeling and stabilization.

The cytoskeleton (CSK) is a tensed fiber framework that supports, shapes and stabilizes the cell. The CSK is in a constant state of remodeling, moreover, which is an active non-equilibrium thermodynamic process. We report here that cytoskeletal remodeling involves reconfigurations that are not only sudden but also are transmitted to great distances within the cell in a fashion reminiscent of quakes in the Earth's crust. Remarkably, these events in the cell conform both qualitatively and quantitatively to empirical laws typical of earthquakes, including hierarchical fault structures, cumulative energy distributions following the Gutenberg-Richter law, and rate of after-shocks following Omori's law. While it is well-established that remodeling and stabilization of the cytoskeleton are non-equilibrium process, these new unanticipated observations establish that these processes are also remarkably non-local and strongly cooperative.

Propulsion and navigation within the advancing monolayer sheet.

As a wound heals, or a body plan forms, or a tumour invades, observed cellular motions within the advancing cell swarm are thought to stem from yet to be observed physical stresses that act in some direct and causal mechanical fashion. Here we show that such a relationship between motion and stress is far from direct. Using monolayer stress microscopy, we probed migration velocities, cellular tractions and intercellular stresses in an epithelial cell sheet advancing towards an island on which cells cannot adhere. We found that cells located near the island exert tractions that pull systematically towards this island regardless of whether the cells approach the island, migrate tangentially along its edge, or paradoxically, recede from it. This unanticipated cell-patterning motif, which we call kenotaxis, represents the robust and systematic mechanical drive of the cellular collective to fill unfilled space.

Monolayer stress microscopy: limitations, artifacts, and accuracy of recovered intercellular stresses.

In wound healing, tissue growth, and certain cancers, the epithelial or the endothelial monolayer sheet expands. Within the expanding monolayer sheet, migration of the individual cell is strongly guided by physical forces imposed by adjacent cells. This process is called plithotaxis and was discovered using Monolayer Stress Microscopy (MSM). MSM rests upon certain simplifying assumptions, however, concerning boundary conditions, cell material properties and system dimensionality. To assess the validity of these assumptions and to quantify associated errors, here we report new analytical, numerical, and experimental investigations. For several commonly used experimental monolayer systems, the simplifying assumptions used previously lead to errors that are shown to be quite small. Out-of-plane components of displacement and traction fields can be safely neglected, and characteristic features of intercellular stresses that underlie plithotaxis remain largely unaffected. Taken together, these findings validate Monolayer Stress Microscopy within broad but well-defined limits of applicability.

Dynamics of the cytoskeleton: how much does water matter?

The principal constituent of the living cell is water. The role of the hydration shell and bulk H(2)O solvent is well recognized in the dynamics of isolated proteins, but the role of water in the dynamics of the integrated living cytoskeleton (CSK) remains obscure. Here we report a direct connection of dynamics of water to dynamics of the integrated CSK. The latter are known to be scale-free and to hinge upon a frequency f(0) that is roughly invariant across cell types. Although f(0) is comparable in magnitude to the rotational relaxation frequency of water (gigahertz range), the physical basis of f(0) remains unknown. Using the human airway smooth muscle cell as a model system, we show here that replacing water acutely with deuterium oxide impacts CSK dynamics in major ways, slowing CSK remodeling dynamics appreciably, and lowering f(0) by up to four orders of magnitude. Although these observations do not distinguish contributions of bulk solvent versus hydration shell, they suggest a unifying hypothesis, namely, that dynamics of integrated CSK networks are slaved in a direct fashion to fluctuations arising in intracellular water.

Cardiac oxidative stress and dysfunction by fine concentrated ambient particles (CAPs) are mediated by angiotensin-II.

Inhalation exposure to fine concentrated ambient particles (CAPs) increases cardiac oxidants by mechanisms involving modulation of the sympathovagal tone on the heart. Angiotensin-II is a potent vasoconstrictor and a sympatho-excitatory peptide involved in the regulation of blood pressure. We hypothesized that increases in angiotensin-II after fine particulate matter (PM) exposure could be involved in the development of cardiac oxidative stress. Adult rats were treated with an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor (benazepril), or an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB; valsartan) before exposure to fine PM aerosols or filtered air. Exposures were carried out for 5 hours in the chamber of the Harvard fine particle concentrator (fine PM mass concentration: 440 +/- 80 microg/m(3)). At the end of the exposure the animals were tested for in situ chemiluminescence (CL) of the heart, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and for plasma levels of angiotensin-II. Also, continuous electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements were collected on a subgroup of exposed animals. PM exposure was associated with statistically significant increases in plasma angiotensin concentrations. Pre-treatment with the ACE inhibitor effectively lowered angiotensin concentration, whereas ARB treatment led to increases in angiotensin above the PM-only level. PM exposure also led to significant increases in heart oxidative stress (CL, TBARS), and a shortening of the T-end to T-peak interval on the ECG that were prevented by treatment with both the ACE inhibitor and ARB. These results show that ambient fine particles can increase plasma levels of angiotensin-II and suggest a role of the renin-angiotensin system in the development of particle-related acute cardiac events.

Mapping the cytoskeletal prestress.

Cell mechanical properties on a whole cell basis have been widely studied, whereas local intracellular variations have been less well characterized and are poorly understood. To fill this gap, here we provide detailed intracellular maps of regional cytoskeleton (CSK) stiffness, loss tangent, and rate of structural rearrangements, as well as their relationships to the underlying regional F-actin density and the local cytoskeletal prestress. In the human airway smooth muscle cell, we used micropatterning to minimize geometric variation. We measured the local cell stiffness and loss tangent with optical magnetic twisting cytometry and the local rate of CSK remodeling with spontaneous displacements of a CSK-bound bead. We also measured traction distributions with traction microscopy and cell geometry with atomic force microscopy. On the basis of these experimental observations, we used finite element methods to map for the first time the regional distribution of intracellular prestress. Compared with the cell center or edges, cell corners were systematically stiffer and more fluidlike and supported higher traction forces, and at the same time had slower remodeling dynamics. Local remodeling dynamics had a close inverse relationship with local cell stiffness. The principal finding, however, is that systematic regional variations of CSK stiffness correlated only poorly with regional F-actin density but strongly and linearly with the regional prestress. Taken together, these findings in the intact cell comprise the most comprehensive characterization to date of regional variations of cytoskeletal mechanical properties and their determinants.

Fast and slow dynamics of the cytoskeleton.

Material moduli of the cytoskeleton (CSK) influence a wide range of cell functions. There is substantial evidence from reconstituted F-actin gels that a regime exists in which the moduli scale with frequency with a universal exponent of 3/4. Such behaviour is entropic in origin and is attributable to fluctuations in semiflexible polymers driven by thermal forces, but it is not obvious a priori that such entropic effects are responsible for the elasticity of the CSK. Here we demonstrate the existence of such a regime in the living cell, but only at high frequencies. Fast events scaled with frequency in a manner comparable to semiflexible-polymer dynamics, but slow events scaled with a non-universal exponent that was systematically smaller than 3/4 and probably more consistent with a soft-glass regime. These findings strongly suggest that at smaller timescales elasticity arises from entropic fluctuations of a semiflexible-filament network, whereas on longer timescales slow (soft-glass-like) dynamics of a different origin prevail. The transition between these two regimes occurred on timescales of the order of 0.01 s, thus setting within the slow glassy regime cellular events such as spreading, crawling, contracting, and invading.

Filamin-a and rheological properties of cultured melanoma cells.

Here we report the rheological properties of cultured hsFLNa (filamin-A)-expressing (FIL+) and hsFLNa-deficient (FIL-) melanoma cells. Using magnetic twisting cytometry over a wide range of probing frequencies, and targeting either cortical or deeper cytoskeletal structures, we found that differences in stiffness of FIL+ versus FIL- cells were remarkably small. When probed through deep cytoskeletal structures, FIL+ cells were, at most, 30% stiffer than FIL- cells, whereas when probed through more peripheral cytoskeletal structures FIL- cells were not different except at very high frequencies. The loss tangent, expressed as an effective cytoskeletal temperature, was systematically greater in FIL- than FIL+ cells, but these differences were small and showed that the FIL+ cells were only slightly closer to a solidlike state. To quantify cytoskeletal remodeling, we measured spontaneous motions of beads bound to cortical cytoskeletal structures and found no difference in FIL+ versus FIL- cells. Although mechanical differences between FIL+ and FIL- cells were evident both in cortical and deeper structures, these differences were far smaller than expected based on measurements of the rheology of purified actin-filamin solutions. These findings do not rule out an important contribution of filamin to the mechanical properties of the cortical cytoskeleton, but suggest that effects of filamin in the cortex are not exerted on the length scale of the probe used here. These findings would appear to rule out any important contribution of filamin to the bulk mechanical properties of the cytoplasm, however. Although filamin is present in the cytoplasm, it may be inactive, its mechanical effects may be small compared with other crosslinkers, or mechanical properties of the matrix may be dominated by an overriding role of cytoskeletal prestress.

Rat airway smooth muscle cell during actin modulation: rheology and glassy dynamics.

Although changes of cytoskeleton (CSK) stiffness and friction can be induced by diverse interventions, all mechanical changes reported to date can be scaled onto master relationships that appear to be universal. To assess the limits of the applicability of those master relationships, we focused in the present study on actin and used a panel of actin-manipulating drugs that is much wider than any used previously. We focused on the cultured rat airway smooth muscle (ASM) cell as a model system. Cells were treated with agents that directly modulate the polymerization (jasplakinolide, cytochalasin D, and latrunculin A), branching (genistein), and cross linking (phallacidin and phalloidin oleate) of the actin lattice. Contractile (serotonin, 5-HT) and relaxing (dibutyryl adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate, DBcAMP) agonists and a myosin inhibitor (ML-7) were also tested for comparison, because these agents may change the structure of actin indirectly. Using optical magnetic twisting cytometry, we measured elastic and frictional moduli before and after treatment with each agent. Stiffness increased with frequency as a weak power law, and changes of friction paralleled those of stiffness until they approached a Newtonian viscous limit. Despite large differences in the mechanism of action among the interventions, all data collapsed onto master curves that depended on a single parameter. In the context of soft glassy systems, that parameter would correspond to an effective temperature of the cytoskeletal matrix and reflect the effects of molecular crowding and associated molecular trapping. These master relationships demonstrate that when the mechanical properties of the cell change, they are constrained to do so along a special trajectory. Because mechanical characteristics of the cell shadow underlying molecular events, these results imply special constraints on the protein-protein interactions that dominate CSK mechanical properties.

Cytoskeletal mechanics in adherent human airway smooth muscle cells: probe specificity and scaling of protein-protein dynamics.

We probed elastic and loss moduli in the adherent human airway smooth muscle cell through a variety of receptor systems, each serving as a different molecular window on cytoskeletal dynamics. Coated magnetic microbeads were attached to the cell surface via coating-receptor binding. A panel of bead coatings was investigated: a peptide containing the sequence RGD, vitronectin, urokinase, activating antibody against beta(1)-integrin, nonactivating antibody against beta(1)-integrin, blocking antibody against beta(1)-integrin, antibody against beta(1)-integrin, and acetylated low-density lipoprotein. An oscillatory mechanical torque was applied to the bead, and resulting lateral displacements were measured at baseline, after actin disruption by cytochalasin D, or after contractile activation by histamine. As expected, mechanical moduli depended strongly on bead type and bead coating, differing at the extremes by as much as two orders of magnitude. In every case, however, elastic and loss moduli increased with frequency f as a weak power law, f( x-1). Moreover, with few exceptions, data could be scaled such that elastic and frictional responses depended solely on the power law exponent x. Taken together, these data suggest that power law behavior represents a generic feature of underlying protein-protein dynamics.

Time scale and other invariants of integrative mechanical behavior in living cells.

In dealing with systems as complex as the cytoskeleton, we need organizing principles or, short of that, an empirical framework into which these systems fit. We report here unexpected invariants of cytoskeletal behavior that comprise such an empirical framework. We measured elastic and frictional moduli of a variety of cell types over a wide range of time scales and using a variety of biological interventions. In all instances elastic stresses dominated at frequencies below 300 Hz, increased only weakly with frequency, and followed a power law; no characteristic time scale was evident. Frictional stresses paralleled the elastic behavior at frequencies below 10 Hz but approached a Newtonian viscous behavior at higher frequencies. Surprisingly, all data could be collapsed onto master curves, the existence of which implies that elastic and frictional stresses share a common underlying mechanism. Taken together, these findings define an unanticipated integrative framework for studying protein interactions within the complex microenvironment of the cell body, and appear to set limits on what can be predicted about integrated mechanical behavior of the matrix based solely on cytoskeletal constituents considered in isolation. Moreover, these observations are consistent with the hypothesis that the cytoskeleton of the living cell behaves as a soft glassy material, wherein cytoskeletal proteins modulate cell mechanical properties mainly by changing an effective temperature of the cytoskeletal matrix. If so, then the effective temperature becomes an easily quantified determinant of the ability of the cytoskeleton to deform, flow, and reorganize.