DOI: 10.1091/mbc.e11-04-0379. A pharmacological cocktail for arresting actin dynamics in living cells

A pharmacological cocktail for arresting actin dynamics in living cells

10.1091/mbc.e11-04-0379

Crossref journal-article

American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)

Molecular Biology of the Cell (1076)

Abstract

The actin cytoskeleton is regulated by factors that influence polymer assembly, disassembly, and network rearrangement. Drugs that inhibit these events have been used to test the role of actin dynamics in a wide range of cellular processes. Previous methods of arresting actin rearrangements take minutes to act and work well in some contexts, but can lead to significant actin reorganization in cells with rapid actin dynamics, such as neutrophils. In this paper, we report a pharmacological cocktail that not only arrests actin dynamics but also preserves the structure of the existing actin network in neutrophil-like HL-60 cells, human fibrosarcoma HT1080 cells, and mouse NIH 3T3 fibroblast cells. Our cocktail induces an arrest of actin dynamics that initiates within seconds and persists for longer than 10 min, during which time cells maintain their responsivity to external stimuli. With this cocktail, we demonstrate that actin dynamics, and not simply morphological polarity or actin accumulation at the leading edge, are required for the spatial persistence of Rac activation in HL-60 cells. Our drug combination preserves the structure of the existing cytoskeleton while blocking actin assembly, disassembly, and rearrangement, and should prove useful for investigating the role of actin dynamics in a wide range of cellular signaling contexts.

Bibliography

Peng, G. E., Wilson, S. R., & Weiner, O. D. (2011). A pharmacological cocktail for arresting actin dynamics in living cells. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 22(21), 3986â3994.

Authors 3

Grace E. Peng (first)
Sarah R. Wilson (additional)
Orion D. Weiner (additional)

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Dates

Type	When
Created	13 years, 11 months ago (Sept. 1, 2011, 7:31 a.m.)
Deposited	3 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 2, 2021, 4:41 p.m.)
Indexed	3 weeks, 3 days ago (Aug. 6, 2025, 9:27 a.m.)
Issued	13 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 1, 2011)
Published	13 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 1, 2011)
Published Print	13 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 1, 2011)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Peng_2011, title={A pharmacological cocktail for arresting actin dynamics in living cells}, volume={22}, ISSN={1939-4586}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1091/mbc.e11-04-0379}, DOI={10.1091/mbc.e11-04-0379}, number={21}, journal={Molecular Biology of the Cell}, publisher={American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)}, author={Peng, Grace E. and Wilson, Sarah R. and Weiner, Orion D.}, editor={Blanchoin, Laurent}, year={2011}, month=nov, pages={3986–3994} }

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