Noncontact Measurement of the Local Mechanical Properties of Living Cells Using Pressure Applied Via a Pipette

Overview

Journal Biophys J

Publisher Cell Press

Specialty Biophysics

Date 2008 Jun 3

PMID 18515369

Citations 30

Authors

Daniel Sanchez

Nick Johnson

Chao Li

Pavel Novak

Johannes Rheinlaender

Yanjun Zhang

Uma Anand

Praveen Anand

Julia Gorelik

Gregory I Frolenkov

Christopher Benham

Max Lab

Victor P Ostanin

Tilman E Schaffer

David Klenerman

Yuri E Korchev

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Mechanosensitivity in living biological tissue is a study area of increasing importance, but investigative tools are often inadequate. We have developed a noncontact nanoscale method to apply quantified positive and negative force at defined positions to the soft responsive surface of living cells. The method uses applied hydrostatic pressure (0.1-150 kPa) through a pipette, while the pipette-sample separation is kept constant above the cell surface using ion conductance based distance feedback. This prevents any surface contact, or contamination of the pipette, allowing repeated measurements. We show that we can probe the local mechanical properties of living cells using increasing pressure, and hence measure the nanomechanical properties of the cell membrane and the underlying cytoskeleton in a variety of cells (erythrocytes, epithelium, cardiomyocytes and neurons). Because the cell surface can first be imaged without pressure, it is possible to relate the mechanical properties to the local cell topography. This method is well suited to probe the nanomechanical properties and mechanosensitivity of living cells.

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