Shear Assay Protocol for the Determination of Single-Cell Material Properties
Summary
This protocol outlines the quantification of the mechanical properties of cancerous and non-cancerous cell lines in vitro. Conserved differences in the mechanics of cancerous and normal cells can act as a biomarker that may have implications in prognosis and diagnosis.
Abstract
Irregular biomechanics are a hallmark of cancer biology subject to extensive study. The mechanical properties of a cell are similar to those of a material. A cell’s resistance to stress and strain, its relaxation time, and its elasticity are all properties that can be derived and compared to other types of cells. Quantifying the mechanical properties of cancerous (malignant) versus normal (non-malignant) cells allows researchers to further uncover the biophysical fundamentals of this disease. While the mechanical properties of cancer cells are known to consistently differ from the mechanical properties of normal cells, a standard experimental procedure to deduce these properties from cells in culture is lacking.
This paper outlines a procedure to quantify the mechanical properties of single cells in vitro using a fluid shear assay. The principle behind this assay involves applying fluid shear stress onto a single cell and optically monitoring the resulting cellular deformation over time. Cell mechanical properties are subsequently characterized using digital image correlation (DIC) analysis and fitting an appropriate viscoelastic model to the experimental data generated from the DIC analysis. Overall, the protocol outlined here aims to provide a more effective and targeted method for the diagnosis of difficult-to-treat cancers.
Introduction
Studying the biophysical differences between cancerous and non-cancerous cells allows for novel diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities1. Understanding how differences in biomechanics/mechanobiology contribute to tumor progression and treatment resistance will reveal new avenues for targeted therapy and early diagnosis2.
While it is known that cancer cell mechanical properties differ from normal cells (e.g., viscoelasticity of the plasma membrane and nuclear envelope)3,4,5, robust and reproducible methods for measuring these properties in live cells are lacking6. The shear assay method is used to quantify the mechanical properties of cells by subjecting single cells to fluid shear stress and analyzing their individual responses and resistance to the applied stress3,4,5,7,8,9. Although several methods and techniques have been used to characterize the mechanical properties of single cells, these tend to affect cell material properties by i) perforating/damaging the cell membrane due to the indentation depth, complex tip geometries, or substrate stiffening associated with atomic force microscopy (AFM)10,11, ii) inducing cellular photodamage during optical trapping12,13, or iii) inducing complex stress states associated with micropipette aspiration14,15. These external effects are associated with significant uncertainties in the accuracy of cell viscoelasticity measurements6,16,17.
To address these limitations, the shear assay method described here provides a highly controllable and simple approach to simulate physiological flow in the body without affecting cellular material properties in the process. Fluid shear stresses in this assay represent mechanical stresses experienced by cells in the body either by fluids within the tumor interstitium or in the blood during circulation18,19,20. Further, these fluid stresses promote various malignant behaviors in cancer cells, including progression, migration, metastasis, and cell death19,21,22,23 which vary between tumorigenic and non-tumorigenic cells. Moreover, the altered mechanical features of cancer cells (i.e., they are often "softer" than normal cells found within the same organ) allow them to persist in hostile tumor microenvironments, invade surrounding normal tissues, and metastasize to distant sites24,25,26. By creating a pseudo-biological environment where cells experience physiological levels of fluid shear stress, a process that is physiologically relevant and not destructive to the cell is achieved. The cellular responses to these applied fluid shear stresses allow us to characterize cell mechanical properties.
This paper provides a shear assay protocol for the extensive study of the mechanical properties and behavior of cancerous and non-cancerous cells under applied shear stress. Cells respond to external forces in an elastic and viscous manner and can therefore be idealized as a viscoelastic material3. This technique is categorized into: (i) cell culture of dispersed single cells, (ii) controlled application of fluid shear stress, (iii) in situ imaging and observation of cellular behavior (including resistance to stress and deformation), (iv) strain analysis of cells to determine the extent of deformation, and (v) characterization of the viscoelastic properties of single cells. By interrogating these mechanical properties and behaviors, complex cellular mechanobiology can be distilled to quantifiable data. A protocol outlining this method allows for the cataloging of and comparison between various malignant and non-malignant cell types. Quantifying these differences has the potential to establish diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers.
Protocol
Representative Results
Discussion
The shear assay method, which includes setting up an pseudo-mechanobiological environment to simulate the interaction of cells with the surrounding mechanical microenvironment and their responses to mechanical stresses, has produced a catalog of cellular mechanical properties, whose patterns show conserved physical atypia among cancerous cell lines3,4,5,7,8. T…
Offenlegungen
The authors have nothing to disclose.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank previous researchers from the Soboyejo group at Worcester Polytechnic Institute who first pioneered this technique: Drs. Yifang Cao, Jingjie Hu, and Vanessa Uzonwanne. This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI K22 CA258410 to M.D.). Figures were created with BioRender.com.
Materials
| CELL CULTURE | |||
| .25% Trypsin, 2.21 mM EDTA, 1x[-] sodium bicarbonate | Corning | 25-053-ci | For cellular detachment from substrate in cell culture |
| 15 mL centrifuge tubes | Falcon by Corning | 05-527-90 | |
| 35 mm Petri dishes | Corning | 430165 | |
| 50 mL centrifuge tubes | Falcon by Corning | 14-432-22 | |
| centrifuge | any | For sterile cell culture | |
| Dulbecco's Modification of Eagle's Medium (DMEM) 1x | Corning | 10-013-cv | Or any other media for culturing cells. DMEM was used for culturing U87 cells |
| gloves | any | For sterile cell culture | |
| Heracell Vios 160i CO2 Incubator | Thermo Scientific | 51033770 | For Incubation during cell culture |
| Hood | any | For sterile cell culture | |
| micropipette | any | For sterile cell culture | |
| micropipette tips | any | For sterile cell culture | |
| Microscope | Leica/any | For sterile cell culture | |
| Phosphate Buffered Saline without calcium and magnesium PBS, 1x | Corning | 21-040-CM | |
| pipetman | any | For sterile cell culture | |
| pipette tips | any | For sterile cell culture | |
| Precision GP 10 liquid incubator | Thermo Scientific | TSGP02 | |
| T25 flask | Corning | 430639 | |
| T75 flask | Corning | 430641U | |
| SHEAR ASSAY | |||
| 100 mL beaker | any | For creating DMEM + methyl cellulose viscous shear media | |
| DMEM | Corning | ||
| Flow chamber + rubber gasket | Glycotech | 31-001 | Circular Flow chamber Kit ( for 35 mm tissue culture dishes) |
| Hybrid Rheometer | HR-2 Discovery Hybrid Rheometer | For determination of shear fluid viscosity | |
| magnetic stir bar | any | For creating DMEM + methyl cellulose viscous shear media | |
| magnetic stir plate | any | For creating DMEM + methyl cellulose viscous shear media | |
| methyl cellulose | any | To increase viscosity of DMEM in flow media | |
| Syringe Pump | KD Scientific Geminin 88 plus | 788088 | For programming fluid infusion and withdrawal |
| syringes, tubing, and connectors | For shear apparatus setup | ||
| SOFTWARE | |||
| ABAQUS software | Simulia | ||
| Digitial Image Correlation software | LaVision, Germany | DAVIS 10.1.2 | |
| Imaging software | Leica/any microscope software | ||
| MATLAB | MATLAB | MATLAB_R2020B |
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