Abstract
Evaluation of cell traction forces is crucial to biological researches. Accordingly, a number of cell traction forces evaluation techniques have been proposed in the past. In contrast to extensive studies on effects of exogenous forces such as tensile stretches and fluid shear stresses, there has been less work on how endogenous contractile forces are generated within cells under various conditions. This may be partly attributed to a lack of experimental techniques for evaluating the cell traction forces. One of the most popular techniques is traction force microscopy (TFM) using fluorescent microbeads embedded within hydrogels on which cells are plated. The cell traction forces are usually estimated from displacement of fluorescent beads and the physical properties of the hydrogel. This technique requires complicated image correlation analyses and sophisticated experimental skills. Hence, it is not practical to use such a technique in large-scale screening programs. An alternative has been developed, which makes it possible to visualize the cell traction forces using a gold ultra-thin film.
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