Effect of osmotic pressure and its duration on cell size and viability

Glaucoma is one of the leading cause of blindness, and is associated with the increased pressure in the eye. Although the underlying mechanism is not fully understood, osmotic pressure is a likely contributor to this disease. This project aims at understanding the effect of pressure at the cellular level. In particular, different osmotic pressures will be applied to cells for different amounts of time, from very low to high. The effect of osmotic pressure on the size of the cell will be monitored using optical density measurements via laser. The recovery of the cell will be monitored as a function of time and applied pressure, to see what is more damaging, low pressure applied for a long time or higher pressure applied for a short time.These aspects will be also investigated computationally, by taking in account the elastic properties of cellular membranes.

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UBM students Sundas Fatima and Andrew Izquierdo in the laboratory of Dr Camelia Prodan:

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This Program is supported by the NSF grant award DMS-0926232 Please contact Victor Matveev for further information.