title: Measuring the mechanical behaviour of human oocytes with a very simple SU-8 micro-tool.
abstract: The elasticity of human oocytes has been estimated by means of a very simple SU-8 microsystem. The device consists of a double SU-8 layer spin coated on a silicon wafer. A micro-beam is patterned by standard photolithography. The silicon wafer is back etched using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) in order to release the micro-beam. Because the SU-8 resin exhibits a very low Young modulus, beams with stiffnesses of 12 N/m have been easily fabricated. Although the stiffness is not as low as that of Atomic Force Microscopes cantilevers, it was possible to estimate the "deformation-load" characteristics of a few oocytes. A "flattening parameter" of the oocytes is proposed as a function of the applied load and experimental values range from 0.86 microm(2)/Pa to 3.4 microm(2)/Pa for the oocytes under test. Note that this paper belongs to the very few communications concerning the mechanical behaviour of human oocytes.
authors.affiliation: Département d'Optique P.M Duffieux, Institut FEMTO-ST U.M.R CNRS no. 6174, Université de Franche-Comté, 25030, Besancon cedex, France. bruno.wacogne@univ-fcomte.fr
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wacogne
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pieralli
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Roux
authors.forename: Tijani
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gharbi
mesh_terms: D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004548:Elasticity; D004852:Epoxy Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008846:Micromanipulation / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008904:Miniaturization; D009865:Oocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014159:Transducers
chemical_list: D004852:Epoxy Compounds; D011108:Polymers; C520895:SU-8 compound