NANOPHYSIOLOGY OF CELLS, CHANNELS AND NUCLEAR PORES - Life at the Nanoscale: Atomic Force Microscopy of Live Cells - page 130

Figure 6.10. Endothelial cell stiffness depends upon extracellular sodium concen-
tration. The dotted lines represent the estimated slopes of the relation “stiffness
change over sodium change”.
Figure 6.11. AFM images of living vascular endothelial cells (height scale is colour
coded). An endothelial cell monolayer was scanned with constant force (5 nN) and
constant frequency (1 Hz) at two different sodium concentrations in the bath. At low
extracellular sodium concentration (135 mM), cells are lattened by the force of the
AFM stylus applied to the endothelial cells. At high sodium (150 mM), cells resist the
applied forces and thus appear prominent.