Effects of substrate stiffness on the elasticity of ovarian cells using atomic force microscopy

Abstract

In this study, HOSEpiC ovarian cell was cultured on hydrogel substrates with three different Young moduli of 3, 19 and 35 kPa. Atomic force microscopy was used to measure the elasticity of cells on three different stiffness substrates. Furthermore, the distribution of actin filaments in HOSEpiC cell was observed by confocal imaging. From the measurements of atomic force microscopy, we found that substrate stiffness would cause changes of cellular elasticity. The largest one was on the substrate of 35 kPa, followed by the 19 kPa and cells on 3 kPa was the smallest. Besides, from the confocal imaging, it could be observed that the distribution of actin filaments in the cells was different on the three substrates. All these results showed that the elasticity of the cells was lower on the substrates with smaller stiffness, which indicated that cells appeared softer when the stiffness of substrate decreased.