Traction force in tetraspanin CD151 deficient human dermal microvascular endothelial cells

CD151 plays an important role in the regulation of cell migration, vascular morphogenesis, and cancer metastasis. Many of these processes are related to the strength of cell-matrix attachment. In this study, traction force microscopy (TFM) was used to determine whether knockdown of CD151 in endothelial cells would lead to a significant modification in cell-matrix adhesion. Human dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC) were transfected to inhibit the production of CD151. Control and knock-down (KD) HMECs were plated on polyacrylamide gels (E = 16 kPa) coated with 10ug/ml fibronectin. Measurements of maximum traction stress and average perimeter stress reveals that CD151 KD HMEC cells tended to generate less traction force than the controls cells. These results suggest that knock-down of CD151 reduces HMEC traction force on a fibronectin coated substrate.