Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii

• Sören B. Gutekunst,
• Carsten Grabosch,
• Alexander Kovalev,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1393–1398, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.152

• in the human body are the eye and the brain, i.e., very soft environments. Thus, our study provides first hints towards the relevance of mechanical aspects for the pathogenicity of eukaryotic parasites. Keywords: acanthamoeba; cell adhesion; elastic substrates; mechanosensing; silicones

• medically highly relevant amoeba species are acanthamoebae. Acanthamoeba spp. are free-living protists, which are frequently found in water reservoirs such as lakes, swimming-pools, and even in tap water [18]. Some acanthamoeba species are pathogenic to humans, such as A. culbertsoni and A. castellanii [19

• their eyes [22]. Such an acanthamoeba keratitis is often related to wrong contact lens care, e.g., due to non-satisfactory contact lens disinfection [23]. In the study presented here we investigated the influence of substrate stiffness on adhesion properties of A. castellanii. We prepared