Abstract
The mechanical behavior of individual cells plays an important role in regulating various biological activities at the molecular and cellular levels. It can serve as a promising label-free marker of cells’ physiological states. In the past two decades, several techniques have been developed for understanding correlations between cellular mechanical changes and human diseases. However, numerous technical challenges remain with regard to realizing high-throughput, robust, and easy-to-perform measurements of single-cell mechanical properties. In this paper, we review the emerging tools for single-cell mechanical characterization that are provided by microfluidic technology. Different techniques are benchmarked by considering their advantages and limitations. Finally, the potential applications of microfluidic techniques based on cellular mechanical properties are discussed.
Highlights
As the basic building blocks for living organisms, cells can effectively adapt to their microenvironment and respond by altering their biological, chemical, and physical properties.1–4 Among these, the mechanical properties of the cell are determined mostly by cellular shells, integral structures of the cytoskeleton, and the nucleus.5,6 To date, various diseases and biological processes have been associated with alterations in cellular mechanical properties
We summarize the state-of-the-art microfluidic scitation.org/journal/npe techniques that are used in these areas to facilitate high-throughput single-cell mechanical studies
We summarize various applications based on microfluidic cell mechanotyping, ranging from cell separation to disease diagnosis to drug discovery
Summary
As the basic building blocks for living organisms, cells can effectively adapt to their microenvironment and respond by altering their biological, chemical, and physical properties. Among these, the mechanical properties of the cell are determined mostly by cellular shells (e.g., plasma membrane), integral structures of the cytoskeleton (e.g., intermediate filaments and microtubules), and the nucleus. To date, various diseases and biological processes have been associated with alterations in cellular mechanical properties. Various diseases and biological processes have been associated with alterations in cellular mechanical properties. Cellular mechanical properties have been used as potential markers for identifying pathological states. Recent microfluidic high-throughput techniques for single-cell mechanotyping are reviewed and summarized. Scitation.org/journal/npe techniques that are used in these areas to facilitate high-throughput single-cell mechanical studies. We benchmark these techniques based on their working mechanisms and discuss their advantages as well as ways in which they can be improved. We summarize various applications based on microfluidic cell mechanotyping, ranging from cell separation to disease diagnosis to drug discovery. We present perspectives on the opportunities and challenges for further developing and applying microfluidic-based cell mechanotyping
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