Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

495

Date

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Biomedical Engineering

Committee Chair

Esra Roan

Committee Member

Eugene C Eckstein

Committee Member

Christopher M Waters

Abstract

Reconstitution of the epithelial barrier following injury is important for regular lung function. Alveolar epithelial cells repair wounds by initially spreading and migrating into denuded areas, which causes the cells to undergo substantial cytoskeletal remodeling, and later proliferating. Thus, the hypothesis of this thesis is that the mechanical properties of alveolar epithelial cells near the wound edge change over time due to cytoskeletal alterations. Elastic modulus (E) values of immortalized mouse lung epithelial cells at the wound edge fixed at different times after wounding were measured using atomic force microscope indentation with custom-developed analyses and post-processing methods. The results show that E values of fixed MLE-12 cells are similar to those of live MLE-12 cells and that there is a substantial spatial and temporal variability in E values such that the normalized E values were significantly higher at the migration front 3 and 6 hours after wounding and later subsided.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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