Dynamical and noninvasive monitoring of curcumin effect on the changes in the viscoelasticity of human breast cancer cells: A novel model to assess cell apoptosis

Abstract

A real-time quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) cytosensor was first developed for dynamical and noninvasive monitoring of cell viscoelasticity for evaluation of apoptosis degree. In this work, human breast cancer cells MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 were employed as cell model and respectively captured on the surface of QCM electrode modified with mercaptosuccinic acid and poly-l-lysine. Cell viscoelasticity was measured dynamically by real-time monitoring energy dissipation with QCM, and the dynamic diagram of the energy dissipation of MDA-MB-231 cells treated with curcumin was first obtained. The results displayed that the changes of energy dissipation in MDA-MB-231 cells and MCF-7 cells were 8.81 × 10−6 and 5.29 × 10−6, particularly due to the difference in cell viscoelasticity. Furthermore, curcumin was used to induce cell apoptosis and suppress energy dissipation of MDA-MB-231 cells. Combining apoptosis assay with QCM measurement, the results revealed good linear relationship between cell viscoelasticity inhibition and apoptosis rate with correlation coefficient R = 0.9908. The QCM cytosensor could rapidly, accurately, dynamically, and noninvasively monitor the changes of cell viscoelasticity for evaluation of apoptosis degree in MDA-MB-231 cells. The study established a new model for cell apoptosis assessment, facilitating understanding of the mechanisms of cell apoptosis on the aspect of mechanical properties.