Summary

How softness is organized in living organisms is unclear. The elastic modulus of any living tissue can be readily determined using a commercial hardness meter. The calculated value should not simply be the sum of the elastic modulus of the individual components. Various others factors, including intermolecular interactions in actual living tissue must also be considered. To understand the strict organization of the softness at the molecular level, a novel method was developed to measure the elastic modulus of living model tissue with various target proteins and other components, such as cells and cell populations. In particular, the elastic modulus of the model tissue structure (cellular nodule: spheroid) prepared from a cell line by knocking down specific genes was measured (Figure). The data were analyzed to elucidate the relationship between composition (gene expression), structural change, and the elastic modulus. This data will facilitate future studies to develop a material which can model “the softness of living tissues”.