Undifferentiated Bronchial Fibroblasts Derived from Asthmatic Patients Display Higher Elastic Modulus than Their Non-Asthmatic Counterparts
Fig 2
Atomic force microscopy analysis of the morphology and mechanical properties of AS and NA HBFs.
Representative AFM amplitude images of HBFs from AS (A) and NA groups (B) show differences in the morphology between the cells. Stress fibers in the case of AS cells are much more pronounced when compared to NA cells. Scale bar represents10 μm. Force maps of AS (C) and NA cells (D) show significant differences in the values of the Young’s modulus between AS and NA HBFs. Color scale bar in force maps represents the values of the Young’s modulus given in kPa. All collected nanomechanical data belonging to AS and NA groups, are summarized in the histograms of the Young’s modulus values (compiled from 4 AS (E) and 4 NA samples (F), respectively). Log-normal fit was applied to the data to determine the average values of the Young’s modulus for each group. Counts on the y axes represent mean values of E calculated from 10 force curves measured at each location on a single cell. A total number of 120 cells were investigated for each group. Mechanical data for individual samples is shown in S2 Fig.