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Electrodeformation for single cell mechanical characterization

Research Authors
Jian Chen, Mohamed Abdelgawad, Liming Yu, Nika Shakiba, Wei-Yin Chien, Zhe Lu, William R Geddie, Michael A S Jewett, Yu Sun
Research Year
2011
Research Journal
Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
Research Publisher
Institute of Physics
Research Vol
21-5
Research Rank
1
Research_Pages
054012
Research Website
http://iopscience.iop.org/0960-1317/21/5/054012/
Research Abstract

This paper presents the use of electrodeformation as a method for single cell mechanical characterization in which mechanical properties of SiHa and ME180 cells (two cervical cancer cell lines) were quantified. Cells were directly placed between two microelectrodes with a rectangular ac electric field applied, and cell deformation was recorded under certain experimental conditions. Numerical simulations were performed to model cell electrodeformation based on the Maxwell stress tensor formulation. In these simulations, effects of cell electrical property variations on their electrodeformed behavior were investigated. By comparing the measured morphological changes with those obtained from numerical simulations, we were able to quantify Young's modulus of SiHa cells (601 ± 183 Pa) and ME180 cells (1463 ± 649 Pa). These values were consistent with Young's modulus values (SiHa: 400 ± 290 Pa and ME180: 1070 ± 580 Pa) obtained from conventional micropipette aspiration.