4th Annual Mountain West
Biomedical Engineering Conference

The glycocalyx of lung endothelial cells is believed to play a significant role in permeability and inflammation via the transduction of extracellular mechanical stimuli into intracellular chemical signals. Specifically, the glycosaminoglycan heparan sulfates and hyaluronan component of glycocalyx and albumin association with glycocalyx were proposed to have control over the mechanical property of the glycocalyx. Here we used reflectance interference contrast microscopy (RICM) to characterize the in vitro mechanical properties of the glycocalyx on bovine lung microvascular endothelial cells (BLMVEC). In RICM experiments, spherical glass beads were randomly deposited on confluent BLMVEC monolayer. By recording the bead interference patterns at the cell-cell junctions region as a function of time, we calculated temporal changes of particle's vertical position, its fluctuations around the equilibrium position, and the respective effective spring constant of the bead-glycocalyx-cell contact. These results were acquired before and after selective enzymatic digestion of major glycocalyx components and also after addition of albumin at several different concentrations. Enzymatic degradation of glycocalyx components resulted in an increased compliance of the bead-glycocalyx-cell contact region. Conversely, the presence of albumin decreased compliance.