Authors: J. Fu et al.

Journal: Science advances (2025)

Research Areas: Cell Biology

Cell Lines: NIH3T3, HT1080, T47D and Hs578

Summary: The authors investigated how mammalian cells regulate their cell mass density (CMD) — defined as the dry mass divided by volume — after perturbations in their environment (e.g., osmotic shocks) and found that, while both cell volume and dry mass show complex, non-monotonic adjustments, CMD itself recovers in a smooth monotonic fashion over ~48 hours and independent of cell-cycle stage. They show that this recovery reflects coordinated adjustment of volume growth (via ion transport and osmotic/volume regulation) and mass accumulation (via protein synthesis) so as to restore a target density, and that pharmacological disruption of volume regulators like the Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger impairs this recovery. The work supports the conclusion that cells actively prioritise restoring an optimal internal macromolecular concentration (density) rather than simply restoring mass or volume individually. HoloMonitor M4 was used for measure the cell dry mass.

Keywords: HoloMonitor M4, Cell mass