Control cells are larger than infected cells

[tischi]

@metavibor @imagirom If it is true, a potentially quite relevant observation. The control cells seem to be consistently 10 to 20 percent larger (in terms of contact area with the coverslip) than the infected cells:

   plate_name                        `median(cell_size_control_divided_infected, na.rm = T)`
   <chr>                                                                               <dbl>
 1 20200417_132123_311                                                                 1.08 
 2 20200417_152052_943                                                                 1.09 
 3 20200417_203228_156                                                                 1.35 
 4 20200420_152417_316                                                                 1.12 
 5 20200420_164920_764                                                                 1.13 
 6 plate1rep3_20200505_100837_821                                                      1.26 
 7 plate2rep3_20200507_094942_519                                                      0.972
 8 plate5rep3_20200507_113530_429                                                      1.26 
 9 plate6rep2_wp_20200507_131032_010                                                   1.24 
10 plate7rep1_20200426_103425_693                                                      1.23 
11 plate8rep1_20200425_162127_242                                                      1.23 
12 plate8rep2_20200502_182438_996                                                      1.16 
13 plate9_2rep1_20200506_163349_413                                                    0.955
14 plate9rep1_20200430_144438_974                                                      1.34 
15 titration_plate_20200403_154849                                                     1.26

I think this could be in fact a real difference in cell volume, because the median ratio of the sums is in several plates lower than one, indicating that there is more integrated serum signal in the control cells than in the infected cells (probably due to their larger volume).

@metavibor maybe the infected cells are less healthy and thus shrink a bit?

• For a FACS based assay this could be important, because there they will measure the sum, I think.

[metavibor]

this could very well be the case, virus infection is causing a massive rearrangement of cytoskeleton (actin, intermediate filaments etc.), we just learned this during the last week... that this might cause 10-20% change in volume/shape is not surprising