Determining Spatial Variability of Elastic Properties for Biological Samples Using AFM

Overview

Journal Micromachines (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Date 2023 Jan 21

PMID 36677243

Authors

Stylianos Vasileios Kontomaris

Andreas Stylianou

Georgios Chliveros

Anna Malamou

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Measuring the mechanical properties (i.e., elasticity in terms of Young's modulus) of biological samples using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) indentation at the nanoscale has opened new horizons in studying and detecting various pathological conditions at early stages, including cancer and osteoarthritis. It is expected that AFM techniques will play a key role in the future in disease diagnosis and modeling using rigorous mathematical criteria (i.e., automated user-independent diagnosis). In this review, AFM techniques and mathematical models for determining the spatial variability of elastic properties of biological materials at the nanoscale are presented and discussed. Significant issues concerning the rationality of the elastic half-space assumption, the possibility of monitoring the depth-dependent mechanical properties, and the construction of 3D Young's modulus maps are also presented.

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