Real-time Tracking of Living Cell Proliferation with Nano Mechanical Biomarkers

Animal cells undergo dramatic shapes and mechanical changes during proliferation, which changes are closely connected to cytoskeleton reorganization and how focal adhesion complexes reassemble. Cells division begins with mitotic entry, followed by the actomyosin and remodeling of the cell-to-substrate adhesion complexes, and the osmotic pressure will increase accordingly. In turn, these changes contribute to the response of the of the mechanical properties during cellular division. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) provides a high- resolution platform for characterizing cellular behavior without damage the living condition of cells. As such, it has been broadly used to investigate the physiology at the cellular level. AFM could synthetically derive the topography of living cells and measure their mechanical properties. Moreover, embedding a cell incubator with air/fluid circulation in the real-time AFM measurement could reveal the dynamic changes of the cellular morphology as well as the mechanical changes during division. Looking at single cell response from the inner structure to measurable parameters, the process of division could be further understood.