Abstract
The mechanical properties of single cells have been recently identified as the basis of an emerging approach in medical applications since they are closely related to the biological processes of cells and human health conditions. The problem in hand is how to measure mechanical properties in order to obtain them more accurately and applicably. Some of the cell’s properties such as elasticity module and adhesion have been measured before using various methods; nevertheless, comprehensive tests for two healthy and cancerous cells have not been performed simultaneously. As a Nanoscale device, AFM has been used for some biological cells, however for breast cells, it has been utilized just to measure elasticity module. To provide a more accurate comparison for the healthy and the malignant cancer cells of breast, mechanical properties of MCF-10A cells such as topography, elasticity module, adhesion force, viscoelastic characteristics, bending and axial rigidity were determined and compared to the MCF-7 cells results obtained in previous works. Results revealed that the healthy breast cells are stiffer and less adhesive in comparison with the cancerous ones. Topography images revealed that cancerous cells have bigger radii. These results can help with the diagnosis of malignant cancer cells and even the level of the disease.
Highlights
Through the increasingly growing breast cancer occurrence and the importance of its prevention and diagnosis, many different methods have been used to tackle it
MCF-10A healthy breast cells were prepared in IBRC from a 36-year-old female
Processed images will be transferred to the computer connected to atomic force microscopy
Summary
Through the increasingly growing breast cancer occurrence and the importance of its prevention and diagnosis, many different methods have been used to tackle it. There are various devices hired to measure biological cell’s different properties, one of which is atomic force microscopy (AFM) [16]. The advantage of AFM over other methods is its capability to present information about other properties such as adhesion distribution, friction, elasticity module, viscoelastic characteristics and surface topography [10]. AFM function in the case of soft surfaces, such as cells and polymers, has some complexities; Weisenhorn et al obtained force-distance and force-indentation depth curves for elastomers, rubbers and biological cells in contact moments and extracted the parabolic curves. The elasticity module was obtained according to the existing theory. The force range in which the best clarity existed was represented [20]
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