We measured the mechanical properties of living neonatal mouse skin tissue using atomic force microscopy. Moreover, to discriminate between the contribution of cells and extracellular matrix (ECM), we treated the tissue with the bacterial collagenase to degrade the ECM and measure the mechanical properties of the exposed cells. After collagenase treatment, we could observe a softening of the tissue samples: typical elastic moduli for the intact tissue were around 10 kPa, whereas, after ECM degradation, we measured elastic moduli of about 400 Pa. Thus, while studying mechanical properties of tissues we found that the ECM plays a major role in determining the stiffness of tissues: cells are much softer than the surrounding material, emphasizing the importance of cell’s environment in tissue mechanics.
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