Evaluating the mechanical properties of biological cells in their living state is of upmost importance for understanding cellular behavior in health or disease and in particular cancer cells. In recent years, force microscopy and spectroscopy have become inevitable tools to attain the elastic modulus of cells as a whole using colloidal probes or with high lateral precision by sharp tips. However, the obtained values have to be treated with due care to avoid data misinterpretation. Here, we present a comparison of elasticity between four metastatic cancer cell lines (lung, liver, skin, and breast epithelial-type cancer cells) taken by colloidal and sharp probes using force spectroscopy on cell monolayers and stress the impact of a stiff substrate, which cells are attached to, on the measured values especially in cancerous cells, which depict abnormalities in structure and cellular components. As a result of our analysis, we suggest to solely use sharp probes for the mechanical characterization of cancer cells when the force-distance relation is fit by a conventional contact mechanics model such as the Hertz model.
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24 February 2020
Research Article|
February 26 2020
Reliability of cancer cell elasticity in force microscopy Available to Purchase
Anahid Amiri;
Anahid Amiri
a)
1
Physics of Surfaces, Institute of Materials Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt
, Alarich-Weiss-Str. 2, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
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Florian D. Hastert
;
Florian D. Hastert
2
Cell Biology and Epigenetics, Department of Biology, Technische Universität Darmstadt
, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
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Lars-Oliver Heim;
Lars-Oliver Heim
1
Physics of Surfaces, Institute of Materials Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt
, Alarich-Weiss-Str. 2, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
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Christian Dietz
Christian Dietz
a)
1
Physics of Surfaces, Institute of Materials Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt
, Alarich-Weiss-Str. 2, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
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Anahid Amiri
1,a)
Florian D. Hastert
2
Lars-Oliver Heim
1
Christian Dietz
1,a)
1
Physics of Surfaces, Institute of Materials Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt
, Alarich-Weiss-Str. 2, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
2
Cell Biology and Epigenetics, Department of Biology, Technische Universität Darmstadt
, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
a)
Electronic addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]
Appl. Phys. Lett. 116, 083701 (2020)
Article history
Received:
December 24 2019
Accepted:
February 10 2020
Citation
Anahid Amiri, Florian D. Hastert, Lars-Oliver Heim, Christian Dietz; Reliability of cancer cell elasticity in force microscopy. Appl. Phys. Lett. 24 February 2020; 116 (8): 083701. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5143432
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