Fine control of nuclear confinement identifies a threshold deformation leading to lamina rupture and induction of specific genes.

The quest to understand how the mechanical and geometrical environment of cells impacts their behavior and fate has been a major force driving the recent development of new technologies in cell biology research. Despite rapid advances in this field, many challenges remain in order to bridge the gap between the classical and simple cell culture plate and the biological reality of actual tissue. In tissues, cells have their physical space constrained by neighboring cells and the extracellular matrix. Here, we propose a simple and versatile device to precisely and dynamically control this confinement parameter in cultured cells. We show that there is a precise threshold deformation above which the nuclear lamina breaks and reconstructs, whereas nuclear volume changes. We also show that different nuclear deformations correlate with the expression of specific sets of genes, including nuclear factors and classical mechanotransduction pathways. This versatile device thus enables the precise control of cell and nuclear deformation by confinement and the correlative study of the associated molecular events.