Issue 2, 2018

Revealing elasticity of largely deformed cells flowing along confining microchannels

Abstract

Deformability is a hallmark of malignant tumor cells. Characterizing cancer cell deformation can reveal how cancer cell metastasizes through tiny gaps in tissues. However, many previous reports only focus on the cancer cell behaviors under small deformation regimes, which may not be representative for the behaviors under large deformations as in the in vivo metastatic processes. Here, we investigate a wide range of cell elasticity using our recently developed confining microchannel arrays. We develop a relation between the elastic modulus and cell shape under different deformation levels based on a modified contact theory and the hyperelastic Tatara theory. We demonstrate good agreements between the model prediction and experimental results. Strikingly, we discover a clear ‘modulus jump’ of largely deformed cells compared to that of small deformed cells, offering further biomechanical properties of the cells. Likely, such a modulus jump can be considered as a label-free marker reflecting the elasticity of intracellular components including the nucleus during cell translocation in capillaries and tissue constrictions. In essence, we perform cell classification based on the distinct micromechanical properties of four cell lines, i.e. one normal cell line (MCF-10A) and three cancer cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and PC3) and achieved reasonable efficiencies (efficiency >65%). Finally, we study the correlation between large-deformational elasticity and translocation rates of the floating cells in the microchannels. Together, our results demonstrate the quantitative analysis of the biomechanical properties of single floating cells, which provide an additional label-free physical biomarker toward more effective cancer diagnosis.

Graphical abstract: Revealing elasticity of largely deformed cells flowing along confining microchannels

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Sep 2017
Accepted
13 Dec 2017
First published
03 Jan 2018
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2018,8, 1030-1038

Revealing elasticity of largely deformed cells flowing along confining microchannels

S. Hu, R. Wang, C. M. Tsang, S. W. Tsao, D. Sun and R. H. W. Lam, RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 1030 DOI: 10.1039/C7RA10750A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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