Atomic force microscopy-based microrheology reveals significant differences in the viscoelastic response between malign and benign cell lines.
Mechanical phenotyping of cells by atomic force microscopy (AFM) was proposed as a novel tool in cancer cell research as cancer cells undergo massive structural changes, comprising remodelling of the cytoskeleton and changes of their adhesive properties. In this work, we focused on the mechanical properties of human breast cell lines with different metastatic potential by AFM-based microrheology experiments. Using this technique, we are not only able to quantify the mechanical properties of living cells in the context of malignancy, but we also obtain a descriptor, namely the loss tangent, which provides model-independent information about the metastatic potential of the cell line. Including also other cell lines from different organs shows that the loss tangent (G″/G') increases generally with the metastatic potential from MCF-10A representing benign cells to highly malignant MDA-MB-231 cells.
Institute of Physical Chemistry, Tammannstrasse 6, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Jan
J
Rother
Institute of Physical Chemistry, Tammannstrasse 6, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Helen
H
Nöding
Institute of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, Tammannstrasse 2, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Ingo
I
Mey
Institute of Physical Chemistry, Tammannstrasse 6, 37077 Göttingen, Germany ajansho@gwdg.de.
Andreas
A
Janshoff
D000818:Animals; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D002460:Cell Line; D004285:Dogs; D004548:Elasticity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D051379:Mice; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000648:ultrastructure*
atomic force microscopy; cancer; microrheology; viscoelasticity