Elasticity spectra as a tool to investigate actin cortex mechanics

Journal of Nanobiotechnology

Alice Bartolozzi¹  Michele Basso¹  Julián Mejía Morales²  Oana Dobre³  Massimo Vassalli³  Tomaso Zambelli⁴  Ines Lüchtefeld⁴ 

[1]Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università degli studi di Firenze, Via di S. Marta 3, 50139, Firenze, Italy

[2]Institut de Physique de Nice, Université Côte d’Azur, 1361 Route des Lucioles, 06560, Valbonne, France

[3]Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale, Università degli studi di Genova, Via Leon Battista Alberti 2, 16132, Genova, Italy

[4]James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Oakfield avenue, G12 8LT, Glasgow, UK

[5]Laboratory of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, ETH Zürich, Gloriastrasse 35, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland

关键词: Scanning probe microscopy;    Force spectroscopy;    Cell mechanics;    Nanoindentation;    Cytoskeleton;    Actin cortex;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12951-020-00706-2

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe mechanical properties of single living cells have proven to be a powerful marker of the cell physiological state. The use of nanoindentation-based single cell force spectroscopy provided a wealth of information on the elasticity of cells, which is still largely to be exploited. The simplest model to describe cell mechanics is to treat them as a homogeneous elastic material and describe it in terms of the Young’s modulus. Beside its simplicity, this approach proved to be extremely informative, allowing to assess the potential of this physical indicator towards high throughput phenotyping in diagnostic and prognostic applications.ResultsHere we propose an extension of this analysis to explicitly account for the properties of the actin cortex. We present a method, the Elasticity Spectra, to calculate the apparent stiffness of the cell as a function of the indentation depth and we suggest a simple phenomenological approach to measure the thickness and stiffness of the actin cortex, in addition to the standard Young’s modulus.ConclusionsThe Elasticity Spectra approach is tested and validated on a set of cells treated with cytoskeleton-affecting drugs, showing the potential to extend the current representation of cell mechanics, without introducing a detailed and complex description of the intracellular structure.

【 授权许可】

CC BY