title: Live cell interferometry reveals cellular dynamism during force propagation.
abstract: Cancer and many other diseases are characterized by changes in cell morphology, motion, and mechanical rigidity. However, in live cell cytology, stimulus-induced morphologic changes typically take 10-30 min to detect. Here, we employ live-cell interferometry (LCI) to visualize the rapid response of a whole cell to mechanical stimulation, on a time scale of seconds, and we detect cytoskeletal remodeling behavior within 200 s. This behavior involved small, rapid changes in cell content and miniscule changes in shape; it would be difficult to detect with conventional or phase contrast microscopy alone and is beyond the dynamic capability of AFM. We demonstrate that LCI provides a rapid, quantitative reconstruction of the cell body with no labeling. This is an advantage over traditional microscopy and flow cytometry, which require cell surface tagging and/or destructive cell fixation for labeling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, 607 Charles Young Drive East, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: Joshua J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Troke
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schmit
authors.forename: Sen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Teitell
authors.forename: James K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Gimzewski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D048429:Cell Size; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007368:Interferometry / Q000379:methods*; D040542:Mechanotransduction, Cellular / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008846:Micromanipulation / Q000379:methods*; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells