Abstract
Cell migration is spatially and temporally regulated by biochemical and biomechanical interactions of its various protein components. One of the elements, cytoskeletal actin structure, is known to play important roles in the mechanisms of self-polarization and directional motility as well as the stability of the cell morphology, where the biomechanical factors such as stress and strain acting on the actin fibers are considered as the crucial modulating factors. To reveal the mechanism relating to the biomechanical factors in the migratory cell, the actin cytoskeletal fibers in the keratocyte were labeled using a fluorescent dye and the distribution of the fiber axial strain during the migration was analyzed.
