Fig. 1

Mechanosensory apparatus in EOC: cell membrane (A) Quantification of the Young’s modulus [kPa] median per ROI for cytoplasmic areas of the SKOV3 and OVCAR3 cells with representative AFM maps. The height is shown in pink, the Young’s modulus depicting values between 0–25 kPa is shown in blue-to-red. (B) Plasma membrane thickness [µm] measured at 3 different points per cell. (C) Cholesterol quantification [r.f.u.] with representative images of plasma membrane cholesterol signal depicted in blue. (D) Membrane fluidity [PDA excimers/monomers ratio]. (E) Membrane intensity [r.f.u.] with representative images of PM appearance in magenta, nuclei in blue. (F) Membrane roughness expressed as signal intensity of the PM staining as function of distance. Segments of 10 μm were taken into final heatmap visualization. Rows depict single cells, n > 37 for each cell line. (G) Cytoplasmic expression of Caveolin-1 [r.f.u.] with representative images. Caveolin-1 is depicted in magenta, actin cytoskeleton in white and nuclei in blue. (H) Total protein level of PIEZO1 [r.f.u.] and representative images (depicted in red). All experiments were performed in at least 3 independent biological replicates. Statistical significance calculated with t-test and shown as * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001