The characterization of cell traction force on non-flat surfaces with
different curvature by elastic hydrogel microspheres
Abstract
It is of great importance to study the detachment/attachment behaviors
of cells (cancer cell, immune cell and epithelial cell), as they are
closely related with tumor metastasis, immunoreaction and tissue
development at variety scales. To characterize the detachment/attachment
during the interaction between cells and substrate, some researchers
proposed using cell traction force (CTF) as the indicator. To date,
various strategies have been developed to measure the CTF. However,
these methods only realize the measurements of cell passive forces on
flat cases. In order to quantify the active CTF on non-flat surfaces,
which can better mimic the in vivo case, we employed elastic
hydrogel microspheres as a force sensor. The microspheres were
fabricated by microfluidic chips with controllable size and mechanical
properties to mimic substrate. Cells were cultured on microsphere and
the CTF led to the deformation of microsphere. By detecting the
morphology information, the CTF exerted by attached cells can be
calculated by the in-house numerical code. Using this microspheres, the
CTF of various cells (including tumor cell, immunological cell, and
epithelium cell) were successfully obtained on non-flat surfaces with
different curvature radii. The proposed method provides a versatile
platform to measure the CTF with high precision and to understand the
detachment/attachment behaviors during physiology processes.