An Automated Scheme for Dielectrophoretic Cell Stretching Manipulation*

Biomechanical factors are closely related to the biological properties of cells. Therefore, the physiological function of cells can be characterized by studying the biomechanical properties of cells, which becomes an important signal for the occurrence and development of some diseases. The main method to obtain Young’s modulus is to stretch to deform cells by applying force. At present, there are various methods to deform cells, but the complexity of the operation and human factors limit the amount of data. In this work, a scheme for the automatic acquisition of large amounts of cellular deformation data is presented, which integrates the functions of cell capture, dielectrophoretic stretching, and release. The whole process does not require human intervention, and the mechanical properties of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were measured to reveal the performance of the automated manipulation scheme. The presented method provides a more convenient and effective method for measuring the mechanical properties of cells, which improves the significance of biostatistics.