Cells Under Stress: An Inertial-Shear Microfluidic Determination of Cell Behavior

Biophysical Journal
Fern J ArmisteadStephen D Evans

Abstract

The deformability of a cell is the direct result of a complex interplay between the different constituent elements at the subcellular level, coupling a wide range of mechanical responses at different length scales. Changes to the structure of these components can also alter cell phenotype, which points to the critical importance of cell mechanoresponse for diagnostic applications. The response to mechanical stress depends strongly on the forces experienced by the cell. Here, we use cell deformability in both shear-dominant and inertia-dominant microfluidic flow regimes to probe different aspects of the cell structure. In the inertial regime, we follow cellular response from (visco-)elastic through plastic deformation to cell structural failure and show a significant drop in cell viability for shear stresses >11.8 kN/m2. Comparatively, a shear-dominant regime requires lower applied stresses to achieve higher cell strains. From this regime, deformation traces as a function of time contain a rich source of information including maximal strain, elastic modulus, and cell relaxation times and thus provide a number of markers for distinguishing cell types and potential disease progression. These results emphasize the benefit of multip...Continue Reading

Citations

Sep 19, 2019·Biophysics Reviews·Jochen Guck
Jul 23, 2020·Biophysical Journal·Scott J HymelDamir B Khismatullin
Jun 26, 2021·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Pengyun LiTatsuo Arai
Sep 26, 2020·Biophysical Journal·Cole ZmurchokWilliam R Holmes
Nov 26, 2021·Cytometry. Part a : the Journal of the International Society for Analytical Cytology·Yan LiuJian Chen

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
atomic force microscopy
deformation
AFM
biopsy

Software Mentioned

ImageJ
MATLAB

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