Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Nov 15:9:1449.
doi: 10.3389/fphys.2018.01449. eCollection 2018.

Biomechanical Characterization at the Cell Scale: Present and Prospects

Francesco Basoli  1 , Sara Maria Giannitelli  1 , Manuele Gori  1 , Pamela Mozetic  2 , Alessandra Bonfanti  3 , Marcella Trombetta  1 , Alberto Rainer  1   4
Affiliations
Review

Biomechanical Characterization at the Cell Scale: Present and Prospects

Francesco Basoli et al. Front Physiol. .

Abstract

The rapidly growing field of mechanobiology demands for robust and reproducible characterization of cell mechanical properties. Recent achievements in understanding the mechanical regulation of cell fate largely rely on technological platforms capable of probing the mechanical response of living cells and their physico-chemical interaction with the microenvironment. Besides the established family of atomic force microscopy (AFM) based methods, other approaches include optical, magnetic, and acoustic tweezers, as well as sensing substrates that take advantage of biomaterials chemistry and microfabrication techniques. In this review, we introduce the available methods with an emphasis on the most recent advances, and we discuss the challenges associated with their implementation.

Keywords: AFM; MEMS; cell mechanics; cell-generated forces; mechanobiology; mechanotransduction; traction force microscopy; tweezing methods.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Abidine Y., Laurent V. M., Michel R., Duperray A., Verdier C. (2015). Local mechanical properties of bladder cancer cells measured by AFM as a signature of metastatic potential. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 130:202 10.1140/epjp/i2015-15202-6 - DOI
    1. Ahmed D., Ozcelik A., Bojanala N., Nama N., Upadhyay A., Chen Y., et al. (2016). Rotational manipulation of single cells and organisms using acoustic waves. Nat. Commun. 7:11085. 10.1038/ncomms11085 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alcaraz J., Otero J., Jorba I., Navajas D. (2018). Bidirectional mechanobiology between cells and their local extracellular matrix probed by atomic force microscopy. Semin. Cell Dev. Biol. 73 71–81. 10.1016/j.semcdb.2017.07.020 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Andersson M., Madgavkar A., Stjerndahl M., Wu Y., Tan W., Duran R., et al. (2007). Using optical tweezers for measuring the interaction forces between human bone cells and implant surfaces: system design and force calibration. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 78:074302. 10.1063/1.2752606 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ando T. (2018). High-speed atomic force microscopy and its future prospects. Biophys. Rev. 10 285–292. 10.1007/s12551-017-0356-5 - DOI - PMC - PubMed