Abstract
Mechanical phenotyping of cells by atomic force microscopy (AFM) was proposed as a novel tool in cancer cell research as cancer cells undergo massive structural changes, comprising remodelling of the cytoskeleton and changes of their adhesive properties. In this work, we focused on the mechanical properties of human breast cell lines with different metastatic potential by AFM-based microrheology experiments. Using this technique, we are not only able to quantify the mechanical properties of living cells in the context of malignancy, but we also obtain a descriptor, namely the loss tangent, which provides model-independent information about the metastatic potential of the cell line. Including also other cell lines from different organs shows that the loss tangent (G″/G′) increases generally with the metastatic potential from MCF-10A representing benign cells to highly malignant MDA-MB-231 cells.
Highlights
SummaryMechanical phenotyping of cells by atomic force microscopy (AFM) was proposed as a novel tool in cancer cell research as cancer cells undergo massive structural changes, comprising remodelling of the cytoskeleton and changes of their adhesive properties
In cancer biology, the conversion from non-tumorigenic cells into metastatic ones is of pivotal interest, especially since formation of metastases poses the biggest threat for humans diagnosed with cancer
We focused on the mechanical properties of human breast cell lines with different metastatic potential by atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based microrheology experiments
Summary
Mechanical phenotyping of cells by atomic force microscopy (AFM) was proposed as a novel tool in cancer cell research as cancer cells undergo massive structural changes, comprising remodelling of the cytoskeleton and changes of their adhesive properties. We focused on the mechanical properties of human breast cell lines with different metastatic potential by AFM-based microrheology experiments. Using this technique, we are able to quantify the mechanical properties of living cells in the context of malignancy, but we obtain a descriptor, namely the loss tangent, which provides model-independent information about the metastatic potential of the cell line. Including other cell lines from different organs shows that the loss tangent (G00/G0) increases generally with the metastatic potential from MCF-10A representing benign cells to highly malignant MDA-MB-231 cells
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