Neuronal cells change their growth properties in response to external physical stimuli such as variations in external temperature, stiffness of the growth substrate, or topographical guidance cues. Detailed knowledge of the mechanisms that control these biomechanical responses is necessary for understanding the basic principles that underlie neuronal growth and regeneration. Here, we present elasticity maps of living cortical neurons (embryonic rat) as a function of temperature, and correlate these maps to the locations of internal structural components of the cytoskeleton. Neurons display a significant increase in the average elastic modulus upon a decrease in ambient temperature from 37 to 25 °C. We demonstrate that the dominant mechanism by which the elasticity of the neurons changes in response to temperature is the stiffening of the actin components of the cytoskeleton induced by myosin II. We also report a reversible shift in the location and composition of the high-stiffness areas of the neuron cytoskeleton with temperature. At 37 °C the areas of the cell displaying high elastic modulus overlap with the tubulin-dense regions, while at 25 °C these high-stiffness areas correspond to the actin-dense regions of the cytoskeleton. These results demonstrate the importance of considering temperature effects when investigating cytoskeletal dynamics in cells.
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