title: Measuring cell-generated forces: a guide to the available tools.
abstract: Forces generated by cells are critical regulators of cell adhesion, signaling, and function, and they are also essential drivers in the morphogenetic events of development. Over the past 20 years, several methods have been developed to measure these forces. However, despite recent substantial interest in understanding the contribution of these forces in biology, implementation and adoption of the developed methods by the broader biological community remain challenging because of the inherently multidisciplinary expertise required to conduct and interpret the measurements. In this review, we introduce the established methods and highlight the technical challenges associated with implementing each technique in a biological laboratory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.|The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: William J
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2728-0746
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Polacheck
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.|The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology*; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D055119:Elastic Modulus / Q000502:physiology; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000502:physiology*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D008954:Models, Biological