1
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Li SS, Xue CD, Li YJ, Chen XM, Zhao Y, Qin KR. Microfluidic characterization of single-cell biophysical properties and the applications in cancer diagnosis. Electrophoresis 2024; 45:1212-1232. [PMID: 37909658 DOI: 10.1002/elps.202300177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2023] [Revised: 09/25/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 11/03/2023]
Abstract
Single-cell biophysical properties play a crucial role in regulating cellular physiological states and functions, demonstrating significant potential in the fields of life sciences and clinical diagnostics. Therefore, over the last few decades, researchers have developed various detection tools to explore the relationship between the biophysical changes of biological cells and human diseases. With the rapid advancement of modern microfabrication technology, microfluidic devices have quickly emerged as a promising platform for single-cell analysis offering advantages including high-throughput, exceptional precision, and ease of manipulation. Consequently, this paper provides an overview of the recent advances in microfluidic analysis and detection systems for single-cell biophysical properties and their applications in the field of cancer. The working principles and latest research progress of single-cell biophysical property detection are first analyzed, highlighting the significance of electrical and mechanical properties. The development of data acquisition and processing methods for real-time, high-throughput, and practical applications are then discussed. Furthermore, the differences in biophysical properties between tumor and normal cells are outlined, illustrating the potential for utilizing single-cell biophysical properties for tumor cell identification, classification, and drug response assessment. Lastly, we summarize the limitations of existing microfluidic analysis and detection systems in single-cell biophysical properties, while also pointing out the prospects and future directions of their applications in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shan-Shan Li
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, P. R. China
| | - Chun-Dong Xue
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, P. R. China
| | - Yong-Jiang Li
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, P. R. China
| | - Xiao-Ming Chen
- School of Optoelectronic Engineering and Instrumentation Science, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, P. R. China
| | - Yan Zhao
- Department of Stomach Surgery, Cancer Hospital of Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning Cancer Hospital and Institute, Shenyang, Liaoning, P. R. China
| | - Kai-Rong Qin
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, P. R. China
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2
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Chapman M, Rajagopal V, Stewart A, Collins DJ. Critical review of single-cell mechanotyping approaches for biomedical applications. LAB ON A CHIP 2024; 24:3036-3063. [PMID: 38804123 DOI: 10.1039/d3lc00978e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
Accurate mechanical measurements of cells has the potential to improve diagnostics, therapeutics and advance understanding of disease mechanisms, where high-resolution mechanical information can be measured by deforming individual cells. Here we evaluate recently developed techniques for measuring cell-scale stiffness properties; while many such techniques have been developed, much of the work examining single-cell stiffness is impacted by difficulties in standardization and comparability, giving rise to large variations in reported mechanical moduli. We highlight the role of underlying mechanical theories driving this variability, and note opportunities to develop novel mechanotyping devices and theoretical models that facilitate convenient and accurate mechanical characterisation. Moreover, many high-throughput approaches are confounded by factors including cell size, surface friction, natural population heterogeneity and convolution of elastic and viscous contributions to cell deformability. We nevertheless identify key approaches based on deformability cytometry as a promising direction for further development, where both high-throughput and accurate single-cell resolutions can be realized.
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Affiliation(s)
- Max Chapman
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
| | - Vijay Rajagopal
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
| | - Alastair Stewart
- ARC Centre for Personalised Therapeutics Technologies, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
- Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - David J Collins
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
- Graeme Clarke Institute University of Melbourne Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
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3
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Soto J, Song Y, Wu Y, Chen B, Park H, Akhtar N, Wang P, Hoffman T, Ly C, Sia J, Wong S, Kelkhoff DO, Chu J, Poo M, Downing TL, Rowat AC, Li S. Reduction of Intracellular Tension and Cell Adhesion Promotes Open Chromatin Structure and Enhances Cell Reprogramming. ADVANCED SCIENCE (WEINHEIM, BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, GERMANY) 2023; 10:e2300152. [PMID: 37357983 PMCID: PMC10460843 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202300152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2023] [Revised: 05/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/27/2023]
Abstract
The role of transcription factors and biomolecules in cell type conversion has been widely studied. Yet, it remains unclear whether and how intracellular mechanotransduction through focal adhesions (FAs) and the cytoskeleton regulates the epigenetic state and cell reprogramming. Here, it is shown that cytoskeletal structures and the mechanical properties of cells are modulated during the early phase of induced neuronal (iN) reprogramming, with an increase in actin cytoskeleton assembly induced by Ascl1 transgene. The reduction of actin cytoskeletal tension or cell adhesion at the early phase of reprogramming suppresses the expression of mesenchymal genes, promotes a more open chromatin structure, and significantly enhances the efficiency of iN conversion. Specifically, reduction of intracellular tension or cell adhesion not only modulates global epigenetic marks, but also decreases DNA methylation and heterochromatin marks and increases euchromatin marks at the promoter of neuronal genes, thus enhancing the accessibility for gene activation. Finally, micro- and nano-topographic surfaces that reduce cell adhesions enhance iN reprogramming. These novel findings suggest that the actin cytoskeleton and FAs play an important role in epigenetic regulation for cell fate determination, which may lead to novel engineering approaches for cell reprogramming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Soto
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
| | - Yang Song
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
| | - Yifan Wu
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
| | - Binru Chen
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
| | - Hyungju Park
- Department of Molecular and Cell BiologyUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
| | - Navied Akhtar
- Department of Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of CaliforniaIrvineCA92617USA
| | - Peng‐Yuan Wang
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
- Oujiang LaboratoryKey Laboratory of Alzheimer's Disease of Zhejiang ProvinceInstitute of AgingWenzhou Medical UniversityWenzhouZhejiang325024China
| | - Tyler Hoffman
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
| | - Chau Ly
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
- Department of Integrative Biology and PhysiologyUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
| | - Junren Sia
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
| | - SzeYue Wong
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
| | | | - Julia Chu
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
| | - Mu‐Ming Poo
- Department of Molecular and Cell BiologyUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
| | - Timothy L. Downing
- Department of Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of CaliforniaIrvineCA92617USA
| | - Amy C. Rowat
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
- Department of Integrative Biology and PhysiologyUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
| | - Song Li
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
- Department of MedicineUniversity of CaliforniaLos AngelesCA90095USA
- Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell ResearchUniversity of California, Los AngelesLos AngelesCA90095USA
- Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer CenterDavid Geffen School of MedicineUniversity of California, Los AngelesLos AngelesCA90095USA
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4
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Ly C, Ogana H, Kim HN, Hurwitz S, Deeds EJ, Kim YM, Rowat AC. Altered physical phenotypes of leukemia cells that survive chemotherapy treatment. Integr Biol (Camb) 2023; 15:7185561. [PMID: 37247849 DOI: 10.1093/intbio/zyad006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2022] [Revised: 04/22/2023] [Accepted: 04/29/2023] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
The recurrence of cancer following chemotherapy treatment is a major cause of death across solid and hematologic cancers. In B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), relapse after initial chemotherapy treatment leads to poor patient outcomes. Here we test the hypothesis that chemotherapy-treated versus control B-ALL cells can be characterized based on cellular physical phenotypes. To quantify physical phenotypes of chemotherapy-treated leukemia cells, we use cells derived from B-ALL patients that are treated for 7 days with a standard multidrug chemotherapy regimen of vincristine, dexamethasone, and L-asparaginase (VDL). We conduct physical phenotyping of VDL-treated versus control cells by tracking the sequential deformations of single cells as they flow through a series of micron-scale constrictions in a microfluidic device; we call this method Quantitative Cyclical Deformability Cytometry. Using automated image analysis, we extract time-dependent features of deforming cells including cell size and transit time (TT) with single-cell resolution. Our findings show that VDL-treated B-ALL cells have faster TTs and transit velocity than control cells, indicating that VDL-treated cells are more deformable. We then test how effectively physical phenotypes can predict the presence of VDL-treated cells in mixed populations of VDL-treated and control cells using machine learning approaches. We find that TT measurements across a series of sequential constrictions can enhance the classification accuracy of VDL-treated cells in mixed populations using a variety of classifiers. Our findings suggest the predictive power of cell physical phenotyping as a complementary prognostic tool to detect the presence of cells that survive chemotherapy treatment. Ultimately such complementary physical phenotyping approaches could guide treatment strategies and therapeutic interventions. Insight box Cancer cells that survive chemotherapy treatment are major contributors to patient relapse, but the ability to predict recurrence remains a challenge. Here we investigate the physical properties of leukemia cells that survive treatment with chemotherapy drugs by deforming individual cells through a series of micron-scale constrictions in a microfluidic channel. Our findings reveal that leukemia cells that survive chemotherapy treatment are more deformable than control cells. We further show that machine learning algorithms applied to physical phenotyping data can predict the presence of cells that survive chemotherapy treatment in a mixed population. Such an integrated approach using physical phenotyping and machine learning could be valuable to guide patient treatments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chau Ly
- Department of Integrative Biology & Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Heather Ogana
- Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Hye Na Kim
- Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Samantha Hurwitz
- Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Eric J Deeds
- Department of Integrative Biology & Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Yong-Mi Kim
- Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Amy C Rowat
- Department of Integrative Biology & Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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5
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Nguyen TH, Nguyen HA, Tran Thi YV, Hoang Tran D, Cao H, Chu Duc T, Bui TT, Do Quang L. Concepts, electrode configuration, characterization, and data analytics of electric and electrochemical microfluidic platforms: a review. Analyst 2023; 148:1912-1929. [PMID: 36928639 DOI: 10.1039/d2an02027k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/25/2023]
Abstract
Microfluidic cytometry (MC) and electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) are two important techniques in biomedical engineering. Microfluidic cytometry has been utilized in various fields such as stem cell differentiation and cancer metastasis studies, and provides a simple, label-free, real-time method for characterizing and monitoring cellular fates. The impedance microdevice, including impedance flow cytometry (IFC) and electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), is integrated into MC systems. IFC measures the impedance of individual cells as they flow through a microfluidic device, while EIS measures impedance changes during binding events on electrode regions. There have been significant efforts to improve and optimize these devices for both basic research and clinical applications, based on the concepts, electrode configurations, and cell fates. This review outlines the theoretical concepts, electrode engineering, and data analytics of these devices, and highlights future directions for development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thu Hang Nguyen
- University of Engineering and Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
| | | | - Y-Van Tran Thi
- University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
| | | | - Hung Cao
- University of California, Irvine, USA
| | - Trinh Chu Duc
- University of Engineering and Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
| | - Tung Thanh Bui
- University of Engineering and Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
| | - Loc Do Quang
- University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
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6
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Liang M, Zhong J, Ai Y. A Systematic Study of Size Correlation and Young's Modulus Sensitivity for Cellular Mechanical Phenotyping by Microfluidic Approaches. Adv Healthc Mater 2022; 11:e2200628. [PMID: 35852381 DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202200628] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2022] [Revised: 06/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Cellular mechanical properties are a class of intrinsic biophysical markers for cell state and health. Microfluidic mechanical phenotyping methods have emerged as promising tools to overcome the challenges of low throughput and high demand for manual skills in conventional approaches. In this work, two types of microfluidic cellular mechanical phenotyping methods, contactless hydro-stretching deformability cytometry (lh-DC) and contact constriction deformability cytometry (cc-DC) are comprehensively studied and compared. Polymerized hydrogel beads with defined sizes are used to characterize a strong negative correlation between size and deformability in cc-DC (r = -0.95), while lh-DC presents a weak positive correlation (r = 0.13). Young's modulus sensitivity in cc-DC is size-dependent while it is a constant in lh-DC. Moreover, the deformability assessment for human breast cell line mixture suggests the lh-DC exhibits better differentiation capability of cells with different size distributions, while cc-DC provides higher sensitivity to identify cellular mechanical changes within a single cell line. This work is the first to present a quantitative study and comparison of size correlation and Young's modulus sensitivity of contactless and contact microfluidic mechanical phenotyping methods, which provides guidance to choose the most suitable cellular mechanical phenotyping platform for specific cell analysis applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minhui Liang
- Pillar of Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore, 487372, Singapore
| | - Jianwei Zhong
- Pillar of Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore, 487372, Singapore
| | - Ye Ai
- Pillar of Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore, 487372, Singapore
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7
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Norris SCP, Kawecki NS, Davis AR, Chen KK, Rowat AC. Emulsion-templated microparticles with tunable stiffness and topology: Applications as edible microcarriers for cultured meat. Biomaterials 2022; 287:121669. [PMID: 35853359 PMCID: PMC9834440 DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2022.121669] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2021] [Revised: 06/27/2022] [Accepted: 07/02/2022] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
Cultured meat has potential to diversify methods for protein production, but innovations in production efficiency will be required to make cultured meat a feasible protein alternative. Microcarriers provide a strategy to culture sufficient volumes of adherent cells in a bioreactor that are required for meat products. However, cell culture on inedible microcarriers involves extra downstream processing to dissociate cells prior to consumption. Here, we present edible microcarriers that can support the expansion and differentiation of myogenic cells in a single bioreactor system. To fabricate edible microcarriers with a scalable process, we used water-in-oil emulsions as templates for gelatin microparticles. We also developed a novel embossing technique to imprint edible microcarriers with grooved topology in order to test if microcarriers with striated surface texture can promote myoblast proliferation and differentiation in suspension culture. In this proof-of-concept demonstration, we showed that edible microcarriers with both smooth and grooved surface topologies supported the proliferation and differentiation of mouse myogenic C2C12 cells in a suspension culture. The grooved edible microcarriers showed a modest increase in the proliferation and alignment of myogenic cells compared to cells cultured on smooth, spherical microcarriers. During the expansion phase, we also observed the formation of cell-microcarrier aggregates or 'microtissues' for cells cultured on both smooth and grooved microcarriers. Myogenic microtissues cultured with smooth and grooved microcarriers showed similar characteristics in terms of myotube length, myotube volume fraction, and expression of myogenic markers. To establish feasibility of edible microcarriers for cultured meat, we showed that edible microcarriers supported the production of myogenic microtissue from C2C12 or bovine satellite muscle cells, which we harvested by centrifugation into a cookable meat patty that maintained its shape and exhibited browning during cooking. These findings demonstrate the potential of edible microcarriers for the scalable production of cultured meat in a single bioreactor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sam C P Norris
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - N Stephanie Kawecki
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Ashton R Davis
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Kathleen K Chen
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Amy C Rowat
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Broad Stem Cell Center, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
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8
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Källberg J, Xiao W, Van Assche D, Baret JC, Taly V. Frontiers in single cell analysis: multimodal technologies and their clinical perspectives. LAB ON A CHIP 2022; 22:2403-2422. [PMID: 35703438 DOI: 10.1039/d2lc00220e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Single cell multimodal analysis is at the frontier of single cell research: it defines the roles and functions of distinct cell types through simultaneous analysis to provide unprecedented insight into cellular processes. Current single cell approaches are rapidly moving toward multimodal characterizations. It replaces one-dimensional single cell analysis, for example by allowing for simultaneous measurement of transcription and post-transcriptional regulation, epigenetic modifications and/or surface protein expression. By providing deeper insights into single cell processes, multimodal single cell analyses paves the way to new understandings in various cellular processes such as cell fate decisions, physiological heterogeneity or genotype-phenotype linkages. At the forefront of this, microfluidics is key for high-throughput single cell analysis. Here, we present an overview of the recent multimodal microfluidic platforms having a potential in biomedical research, with a specific focus on their potential clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Källberg
- Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers, INSERM, CNRS, Université Paris Cité, Sorbonne Université, USPC, Equipe labellisée Ligue Nationale contre le cancer, Paris, France.
| | - Wenjin Xiao
- Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers, INSERM, CNRS, Université Paris Cité, Sorbonne Université, USPC, Equipe labellisée Ligue Nationale contre le cancer, Paris, France.
| | - David Van Assche
- University of Bordeaux, CNRS, Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, UMR 5031, Pessac 33600, France.
| | - Jean-Christophe Baret
- University of Bordeaux, CNRS, Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, UMR 5031, Pessac 33600, France.
- Institut Universitaire de France, Paris 75005, France
| | - Valerie Taly
- Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers, INSERM, CNRS, Université Paris Cité, Sorbonne Université, USPC, Equipe labellisée Ligue Nationale contre le cancer, Paris, France.
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9
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Kim E, Lee H. Mechanical characterization of soft microparticles prepared by droplet microfluidics. JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/pol.20220110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Eunseo Kim
- Department of Chemical Engineering Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) Pohang South Korea
| | - Hyomin Lee
- Department of Chemical Engineering Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) Pohang South Korea
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10
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Yu W, Sharma S, Rao E, Rowat AC, Gimzewski JK, Han D, Rao J. Cancer cell mechanobiology: a new frontier for cancer research. JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL CANCER CENTER 2022; 2:10-17. [PMID: 39035217 PMCID: PMC11256617 DOI: 10.1016/j.jncc.2021.11.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Revised: 11/26/2021] [Accepted: 11/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The study of physical and mechanical features of cancer cells, or cancer cell mechanobiology, is a new frontier in cancer research. Such studies may enhance our understanding of the disease process, especially mechanisms associated with cancer cell invasion and metastasis, and may help the effort of developing diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic drug targets. Cancer cell mechanobiological changes are associated with the complex interplay of activation/inactivation of multiple signaling pathways, which can occur at both the genetic and epigenetic levels, and the interactions with the cancer microenvironment. It has been shown that metastatic tumor cells are more compliant than morphologically similar benign cells in actual human samples. Subsequent studies from us and others further demonstrated that cell mechanical properties are strongly associated with cancer cell invasive and metastatic potential, and thus may serve as a diagnostic marker of detecting cancer cells in human body fluid samples. In this review, we provide a brief narrative of the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer cell mechanobiology, the technological platforms utilized to study cancer cell mechanobiology, the status of cancer cell mechanobiological studies in various cancer types, and the potential clinical applications of cancer cell mechanobiological study in cancer early detection, diagnosis, and treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weibo Yu
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Shivani Sharma
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Elizabeth Rao
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Amy C. Rowat
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California at Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - James K. Gimzewski
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California at Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Dong Han
- National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China
| | - Jianyu Rao
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, California, USA
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11
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Choi G, Tang Z, Guan W. Microfluidic high-throughput single-cell mechanotyping: Devices and
applications. NANOTECHNOLOGY AND PRECISION ENGINEERING 2021. [DOI: 10.1063/10.0006042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Gihoon Choi
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802,
USA
| | - Zifan Tang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802,
USA
| | - Weihua Guan
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802,
USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802,
USA
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12
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Li P, Liu X, Kojima M, Huang Q, Arai T. Automated Cell Mechanical Characterization by On-Chip Sequential Squeezing: From Static to Dynamic. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2021; 37:8083-8094. [PMID: 34171189 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c00441] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The mechanical properties of cells are harmless biomarkers for cell identification and disease diagnosis. Although many systems have been developed to evaluate the static mechanical properties of cells for biomedical research, their robustness, effectiveness, and cost do not meet clinical requirements or the experiments with a large number of cell samples. In this paper, we propose an approach for on-chip cell mechanical characterization by analyzing the dynamic behavior of cells as they pass through multiple constrictions. The proposed serpentine microfluidic channel consisted of 20 constrictions connected in series and divided into five rows for tracking cell dynamic behavior. Assisted by computer vision, the squeezing time of each cell through five rows of constrictions was automatically collected and filtered to evaluate the cell's mechanical deformability. We observed a decreasing passage time and increasing dynamic deformability of the cells as they passed through the multiple constrictions. The deformability increase rate of the HeLa cells was eight times greater than that of MEF cells. Moreover, the weak correlation between the deformability increase rate and the cell size indicated that cell recognition based on measuring the deformability increase rate could hardly be affected by the cell size variation. These findings showed that the deformability increase rate of the cell under on-chip sequential squeezing as a new index has great potential in cancer cell recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pengyun Li
- Key Laboratory of Biomimetic Robots and Systems, Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Control and Decision of Complex System, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Intelligent Robots and Systems, and School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
| | - Xiaoming Liu
- Key Laboratory of Biomimetic Robots and Systems, Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Control and Decision of Complex System, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Intelligent Robots and Systems, and School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
| | - Masaru Kojima
- Department of Materials Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka 560-8531, Japan
| | - Qiang Huang
- Key Laboratory of Biomimetic Robots and Systems, Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Control and Decision of Complex System, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Intelligent Robots and Systems, and School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
| | - Tatsuo Arai
- Key Laboratory of Biomimetic Robots and Systems, Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Control and Decision of Complex System, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Intelligent Robots and Systems, and School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
- Center for Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan
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13
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Oevreeide IH, Szydlak R, Luty M, Ahmed H, Prot V, Skallerud BH, Zemła J, Lekka M, Stokke BT. On the Determination of Mechanical Properties of Aqueous Microgels-Towards High-Throughput Characterization. Gels 2021; 7:64. [PMID: 34072792 PMCID: PMC8261632 DOI: 10.3390/gels7020064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2021] [Revised: 05/21/2021] [Accepted: 05/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Aqueous microgels are distinct entities of soft matter with mechanical signatures that can be different from their macroscopic counterparts due to confinement effects in the preparation, inherently made to consist of more than one domain (Janus particles) or further processing by coating and change in the extent of crosslinking of the core. Motivated by the importance of the mechanical properties of such microgels from a fundamental point, but also related to numerous applications, we provide a perspective on the experimental strategies currently available and emerging tools being explored. Albeit all techniques in principle exploit enforcing stress and observing strain, the realization differs from directly, as, e.g., by atomic force microscope, to less evident in a fluid field combined with imaging by a high-speed camera in high-throughput strategies. Moreover, the accompanying analysis strategies also reflect such differences, and the level of detail that would be preferred for a comprehensive understanding of the microgel mechanical properties are not always implemented. Overall, the perspective is that current technologies have the capacity to provide detailed, nanoscopic mechanical characterization of microgels over an extended size range, to the high-throughput approaches providing distributions over the mechanical signatures, a feature not readily accessible by atomic force microscopy and micropipette aspiration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ingrid Haga Oevreeide
- Biophysics and Medical Technology, Department of Physics, NTNU The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway; (I.H.O.); (H.A.)
| | - Renata Szydlak
- Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, PL-31342 Krakow, Poland; (R.S.); (M.L.); (J.Z.)
| | - Marcin Luty
- Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, PL-31342 Krakow, Poland; (R.S.); (M.L.); (J.Z.)
| | - Husnain Ahmed
- Biophysics and Medical Technology, Department of Physics, NTNU The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway; (I.H.O.); (H.A.)
| | - Victorien Prot
- Biomechanics, Department of Structural Engineering, NTNU The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway; (V.P.); (B.H.S.)
| | - Bjørn Helge Skallerud
- Biomechanics, Department of Structural Engineering, NTNU The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway; (V.P.); (B.H.S.)
| | - Joanna Zemła
- Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, PL-31342 Krakow, Poland; (R.S.); (M.L.); (J.Z.)
| | - Małgorzata Lekka
- Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, PL-31342 Krakow, Poland; (R.S.); (M.L.); (J.Z.)
| | - Bjørn Torger Stokke
- Biophysics and Medical Technology, Department of Physics, NTNU The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway; (I.H.O.); (H.A.)
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14
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Li Z, Yang X, Zhang Q, Yang W, Zhang H, Liu L, Liang W. Non-invasive acquisition of mechanical properties of cells via passive microfluidic mechanisms: A review. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2021; 15:031501. [PMID: 34178202 PMCID: PMC8205512 DOI: 10.1063/5.0052185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 05/30/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The demand to understand the mechanical properties of cells from biomedical, bioengineering, and clinical diagnostic fields has given rise to a variety of research studies. In this context, how to use lab-on-a-chip devices to achieve accurate, high-throughput, and non-invasive acquisition of the mechanical properties of cells has become the focus of many studies. Accordingly, we present a comprehensive review of the development of the measurement of mechanical properties of cells using passive microfluidic mechanisms, including constriction channel-based, fluid-induced, and micropipette aspiration-based mechanisms. This review discusses how these mechanisms work to determine the mechanical properties of the cell as well as their advantages and disadvantages. A detailed discussion is also presented on a series of typical applications of these three mechanisms to measure the mechanical properties of cells. At the end of this article, the current challenges and future prospects of these mechanisms are demonstrated, which will help guide researchers who are interested to get into this area of research. Our conclusion is that these passive microfluidic mechanisms will offer more preferences for the development of lab-on-a-chip technologies and hold great potential for advancing biomedical and bioengineering research studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhenghua Li
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, China
| | - Xieliu Yang
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, China
| | - Qi Zhang
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, China
| | - Wenguang Yang
- School of Electromechanical and Automotive Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China
| | - Hemin Zhang
- Department of Neurology, The People's Hospital of Liaoning Province, Shenyang 110016, China
| | - Lianqing Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
| | - Wenfeng Liang
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, China
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15
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Graybill PM, Bollineni RK, Sheng Z, Davalos RV, Mirzaeifar R. A constriction channel analysis of astrocytoma stiffness and disease progression. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2021; 15:024103. [PMID: 33763160 PMCID: PMC7968935 DOI: 10.1063/5.0040283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2020] [Accepted: 02/23/2021] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Studies have demonstrated that cancer cells tend to have reduced stiffness (Young's modulus) compared to their healthy counterparts. The mechanical properties of primary brain cancer cells, however, have remained largely unstudied. To investigate whether the stiffness of primary brain cancer cells decreases as malignancy increases, we used a microfluidic constriction channel device to deform healthy astrocytes and astrocytoma cells of grade II, III, and IV and measured the entry time, transit time, and elongation. Calculating cell stiffness directly from the experimental measurements is not possible. To overcome this challenge, finite element simulations of the cell entry into the constriction channel were used to train a neural network to calculate the stiffness of the analyzed cells based on their experimentally measured diameter, entry time, and elongation in the channel. Our study provides the first calculation of stiffness for grades II and III astrocytoma and is the first to apply a neural network analysis to determine cell mechanical properties from a constriction channel device. Our results suggest that the stiffness of astrocytoma cells is not well-correlated with the cell grade. Furthermore, while other non-central-nervous-system cell types typically show reduced stiffness of malignant cells, we found that most astrocytoma cell lines had increased stiffness compared to healthy astrocytes, with lower-grade astrocytoma having higher stiffness values than grade IV glioblastoma. Differences in nucleus-to-cytoplasm ratio only partly explain differences in stiffness values. Although our study does have limitations, our results do not show a strong correlation of stiffness with cell grade, suggesting that other factors may play important roles in determining the invasive capability of astrocytoma. Future studies are warranted to further elucidate the mechanical properties of astrocytoma across various pathological grades.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - R. K. Bollineni
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
| | - Z. Sheng
- Department of Internal Medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Virginia Tech Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia 24016, USA
| | - R. V. Davalos
- Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: and
| | - R. Mirzaeifar
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
- Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: and
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16
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Kaushik S, Mahadeva M, Murugan KD, Sundaramurthy V, Soni GV. Measurement of Alcohol-Dependent Physiological Changes in Red Blood Cells Using Resistive Pulse Sensing. ACS Sens 2020; 5:3892-3901. [PMID: 33205646 DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.0c01302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Alcohol exposure has been postulated to adversely affect the physiology and function of the red blood cells (RBCs). The global pervasiveness of alcohol abuse, causing health issues and social problems, makes it imperative to resolve the physiological effects of alcohol on RBC physiology. Alcohol consumed recreationally or otherwise almost immediately alters cell physiology in ways that is subtle and still unresolved. In this paper, we introduce a high-resolution device for quantitative electrofluidic measurement of changes in RBC volume upon alcohol exposure. We present an exhaustive calibration of our device using model cells to measure and resolve volume changes down to 0.6 fL. We find an RBC shrinkage of 5.3% at 0.125% ethanol (the legal limit in the United States) and a shrinkage of 18.5% at 0.5% ethanol (the lethal limit) exposure. Further, we also measure the time dependence of cell volume shrinkage (upon alcohol exposure) and then recovery (upon alcohol removal) to quantify shrinkage and recovery of RBC volumes. This work presents the first direct quantification of temporal and concentration-dependent changes in red blood cell volume upon ethanol exposure. Our device presents a universally applicable high-resolution and high-throughput platform to measure changes in cell physiology under native and diseased conditions.
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17
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Yu W, Lu QY, Sharma S, Ly C, Di Carlo D, Rowat AC, LeClaire M, Kim D, Chow C, Gimzewski JK, Rao J. Single Cell Mechanotype and Associated Molecular Changes in Urothelial Cell Transformation and Progression. Front Cell Dev Biol 2020; 8:601376. [PMID: 33330495 PMCID: PMC7711308 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2020.601376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Accepted: 10/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Cancer cell mechanotype changes are newly recognized cancer phenotypic events, whereas metastatic cancer cells show decreased cell stiffness and increased deformability relative to normal cells. To further examine how cell mechanotype changes in early stages of cancer transformation and progression, an in vitro multi-step human urothelial cell carcinogenic model was used to measure cellular Young's modulus, deformability, and transit time using single-cell atomic force microscopy, microfluidic-based deformability cytometry, and quantitative deformability cytometry, respectively. Measurable cell mechanotype changes of stiffness, deformability, and cell transit time occur early in the transformation process. As cells progress from normal, to preinvasive, to invasive cells, Young's modulus of stiffness decreases and deformability increases gradually. These changes were confirmed in three-dimensional cultured microtumor masses and urine exfoliated cells directly from patients. Using gene screening and proteomics approaches, we found that the main molecular pathway implicated in cell mechanotype changes appears to be epithelial to mesenchymal transition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weibo Yu
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Qing-Yi Lu
- Department of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Shivani Sharma
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Chau Ly
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Dino Di Carlo
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Amy C. Rowat
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Michael LeClaire
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Donghyuk Kim
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Christine Chow
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - James K. Gimzewski
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Jianyu Rao
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
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18
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Moose DL, Krog BL, Kim TH, Zhao L, Williams-Perez S, Burke G, Rhodes L, Vanneste M, Breheny P, Milhem M, Stipp CS, Rowat AC, Henry MD. Cancer Cells Resist Mechanical Destruction in Circulation via RhoA/Actomyosin-Dependent Mechano-Adaptation. Cell Rep 2020; 30:3864-3874.e6. [PMID: 32187555 PMCID: PMC7219793 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.02.080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2019] [Revised: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 02/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
During metastasis, cancer cells are exposed to potentially destructive hemodynamic forces including fluid shear stress (FSS) while en route to distant sites. However, prior work indicates that cancer cells are more resistant to brief pulses of high-level FSS in vitro relative to non-transformed epithelial cells. Herein, we identify a mechano-adaptive mechanism of FSS resistance in cancer cells. Our findings demonstrate that cancer cells activate RhoA in response to FSS, which protects them from FSS-induced plasma membrane damage. We show that cancer cells freshly isolated from mouse and human tumors are resistant to FSS, that formin and myosin II activity protects circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from destruction, and that short-term inhibition of myosin II delays metastasis in mouse models. Collectively, our data indicate that viable CTCs actively resist destruction by hemodynamic forces and are likely to be more mechanically robust than is commonly thought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Devon L Moose
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA; Cancer Biology Program, Biomedical Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Benjamin L Krog
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Tae-Hyung Kim
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Lei Zhao
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | | | - Gretchen Burke
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Lillian Rhodes
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Marion Vanneste
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Patrick Breheny
- Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Mohammed Milhem
- Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA; Division of Hematology and Oncology, Internal Medicine, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Christopher S Stipp
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA; Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA; Department of Biology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Amy C Rowat
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Michael D Henry
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA; Cancer Biology Program, Biomedical Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA; Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA; Departments of Pathology, Urology and Radiation Oncology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
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19
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Choi G, Nouri R, Zarzar L, Guan W. Microfluidic deformability-activated sorting of single particles. MICROSYSTEMS & NANOENGINEERING 2020; 6:11. [PMID: 34567626 PMCID: PMC8433438 DOI: 10.1038/s41378-019-0107-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2019] [Revised: 08/21/2019] [Accepted: 09/16/2019] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Mechanical properties have emerged as a significant label-free marker for characterizing deformable particles such as cells. Here, we demonstrated the first single-particle-resolved, cytometry-like deformability-activated sorting in the continuous flow on a microfluidic chip. Compared with existing deformability-based sorting techniques, the microfluidic device presented in this work measures the deformability and immediately sorts the particles one-by-one in real time. It integrates the transit-time-based deformability measurement and active hydrodynamic sorting onto a single chip. We identified the critical factors that affect the sorting dynamics by modeling and experimental approaches. We found that the device throughput is determined by the summation of the sensing, buffering, and sorting time. A total time of ~100 ms is used for analyzing and sorting a single particle, leading to a throughput of 600 particles/min. We synthesized poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogel beads as the deformability model for device validation and performance evaluation. A deformability-activated sorting purity of 88% and an average efficiency of 73% were achieved. We anticipate that the ability to actively measure and sort individual particles one-by-one in a continuous flow would find applications in cell-mechanotyping studies such as correlational studies of the cell mechanical phenotype and molecular mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gihoon Choi
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA
| | - Reza Nouri
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA
| | - Lauren Zarzar
- Materials Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA
- Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA
| | - Weihua Guan
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA
- Materials Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA
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20
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Beri P, Popravko A, Yeoman B, Kumar A, Chen K, Hodzic E, Chiang A, Banisadr A, Placone JK, Carter H, Fraley SI, Katira P, Engler AJ. Cell Adhesiveness Serves as a Biophysical Marker for Metastatic Potential. Cancer Res 2019; 80:901-911. [PMID: 31857292 DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-19-1794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2019] [Revised: 09/30/2019] [Accepted: 12/16/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Tumors are heterogeneous and composed of cells with different dissemination abilities. Despite significant effort, there is no universal biological marker that serves as a metric for metastatic potential of solid tumors. Common to disseminating cells from such tumors, however, is the need to modulate their adhesion as they detach from the tumor and migrate through stroma to intravasate. Adhesion strength is heterogeneous even among cancer cells within a given population, and using a parallel plate flow chamber, we separated and sorted these populations into weakly and strongly adherent groups; when cultured under stromal conditions, this adhesion phenotype was stable over multiple days, sorting cycles, and common across all epithelial tumor lines investigated. Weakly adherent cells displayed increased migration in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional migration assays; this was maintained for several days in culture. Subpopulations did not show differences in expression of proteins involved in the focal adhesion complex but did exhibit intrinsic focal adhesion assembly as well as contractile differences that resulted from differential expression of genes involved in microtubules, cytoskeleton linkages, and motor activity. In human breast tumors, expression of genes associated with the weakly adherent population resulted in worse progression-free and disease-free intervals. These data suggest that adhesion strength could potentially serve as a stable marker for migration and metastatic potential within a given tumor population and that the fraction of weakly adherent cells present within a tumor could act as a physical marker for metastatic potential. SIGNIFICANCE: Cancer cells exhibit heterogeneity in adhesivity, which can be used to predict metastatic potential.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pranjali Beri
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Anna Popravko
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Benjamin Yeoman
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, San Diego State University, San Diego, California
| | - Aditya Kumar
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Kevin Chen
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Enio Hodzic
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Alyssa Chiang
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Afsheen Banisadr
- Biomedical Sciences Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Jesse K Placone
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Hannah Carter
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Department of Medicine/Division of Medical Genetics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Stephanie I Fraley
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Parag Katira
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, San Diego State University, San Diego, California
- Computational Sciences Research Center, San Diego State University, San Diego, California
| | - Adam J Engler
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California.
- Biomedical Sciences Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, La Jolla, California
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21
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Davidson PM, Fedorchak GR, Mondésert-Deveraux S, Bell ES, Isermann P, Aubry D, Allena R, Lammerding J. High-throughput microfluidic micropipette aspiration device to probe time-scale dependent nuclear mechanics in intact cells. LAB ON A CHIP 2019; 19:3652-3663. [PMID: 31559980 PMCID: PMC6810812 DOI: 10.1039/c9lc00444k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
The mechanical properties of the cell nucleus are increasingly recognized as critical in many biological processes. The deformability of the nucleus determines the ability of immune and cancer cells to migrate through tissues and across endothelial cell layers, and changes to the mechanical properties of the nucleus can serve as novel biomarkers in processes such as cancer progression and stem cell differentiation. However, current techniques to measure the viscoelastic nuclear mechanical properties are often time consuming, limited to probing one cell at a time, or require expensive, highly specialized equipment. Furthermore, many current assays do not measure time-dependent properties, which are characteristic of viscoelastic materials. Here, we present an easy-to-use microfluidic device that applies the well-established approach of micropipette aspiration, adapted to measure many cells in parallel. The device design allows rapid loading and purging of cells for measurements, and minimizes clogging by large particles or clusters of cells. Combined with a semi-automated image analysis pipeline, the microfluidic device approach enables significantly increased experimental throughput. We validated the experimental platform by comparing computational models of the fluid mechanics in the device with experimental measurements of fluid flow. In addition, we conducted experiments on cells lacking the nuclear envelope protein lamin A/C and wild-type controls, which have well-characterized nuclear mechanical properties. Fitting time-dependent nuclear deformation data to power law and different viscoelastic models revealed that loss of lamin A/C significantly altered the elastic and viscous properties of the nucleus, resulting in substantially increased nuclear deformability. Lastly, to demonstrate the versatility of the devices, we characterized the viscoelastic nuclear mechanical properties in a variety of cell lines and experimental model systems, including human skin fibroblasts from an individual with a mutation in the lamin gene associated with dilated cardiomyopathy, healthy control fibroblasts, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and human tumor cells. Taken together, these experiments demonstrate the ability of the microfluidic device and automated image analysis platform to provide robust, high throughput measurements of nuclear mechanical properties, including time-dependent elastic and viscous behavior, in a broad range of applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia M Davidson
- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Cornell University, USA. and Laboratoire Physico-Chimie Curie, Institut Curie, CNRS UMR 168, Université Paris Science et Lettres, Sorbonne Université, France
| | - Gregory R Fedorchak
- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Cornell University, USA.
| | | | - Emily S Bell
- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Cornell University, USA.
| | - Philipp Isermann
- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Cornell University, USA.
| | - Denis Aubry
- Laboratoire MSSMat UMR CNRS 8579, CentraleSupelec, Université Paris-Saclay, France
| | - Rachele Allena
- Arts et Metiers ParisTech, LBM/Institut de Biomécanique Humaine Georges Charpak, France
| | - Jan Lammerding
- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Cornell University, USA.
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22
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Liu N, Du P, Xiao X, Liu Y, Peng Y, Yang C, Yue T. Microfluidic-Based Mechanical Phenotyping of Androgen-Sensitive and Non-sensitive Prostate Cancer Cells Lines. MICROMACHINES 2019; 10:E602. [PMID: 31547397 PMCID: PMC6780375 DOI: 10.3390/mi10090602] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2019] [Revised: 09/07/2019] [Accepted: 09/10/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Cell mechanical properties have been identified to characterize cells pathologic states. Here, we report our work on high-throughput mechanical phenotyping of androgen-sensitive and non-sensitive human prostate cancer cell lines based on a morphological rheological microfluidic method. The theory for extracting cells' elastic modulus from their deformation and area, and the used experimental parameters were analyzed. The mechanical properties of three types of prostate cancer cells lines with different sensitivity to androgen including LNCaP, DU145, and PC3 were quantified. The result shows that LNCaP cell was the softest, DU145 was the second softest, and PC3 was the stiffest. Furthermore, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to verify the effectiveness of this high-throughput morphological rheological method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Na Liu
- School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
| | - Panpan Du
- School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
| | - Xiaoxiao Xiao
- School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
| | - Yuanyuan Liu
- School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
| | - Yan Peng
- School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
| | - Chen Yang
- Fudan Institute of Urology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
| | - Tao Yue
- School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
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23
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Gill NK, Ly C, Kim PH, Saunders CA, Fong LG, Young SG, Luxton GWG, Rowat AC. DYT1 Dystonia Patient-Derived Fibroblasts Have Increased Deformability and Susceptibility to Damage by Mechanical Forces. Front Cell Dev Biol 2019; 7:103. [PMID: 31294022 PMCID: PMC6606767 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2019.00103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2018] [Accepted: 05/27/2019] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
DYT1 dystonia is a neurological movement disorder that is caused by a loss-of-function mutation in the DYT1/TOR1A gene, which encodes torsinA, a conserved luminal ATPases-associated with various cellular activities (AAA+) protein. TorsinA is required for the assembly of functional linker of nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton (LINC) complexes, and consequently the mechanical integration of the nucleus and the cytoskeleton. Despite the potential implications of altered mechanobiology in dystonia pathogenesis, the role of torsinA in regulating cellular mechanical phenotype, or mechanotype, in DYT1 dystonia remains unknown. Here, we define the deformability of mouse fibroblasts lacking functional torsinA as well as human fibroblasts isolated from DYT1 dystonia patients. We find that the deletion of torsinA or the expression of torsinA containing the DYT1 dystonia-causing ΔE302/303 (ΔE) mutation results in more deformable cells. We observe a similar increased deformability of mouse fibroblasts that lack lamina-associated polypeptide 1 (LAP1), which interacts with and stimulates the ATPase activity of torsinA in vitro, as well as with the absence of the LINC complex proteins, Sad1/UNC-84 1 (SUN1) and SUN2, lamin A/C, or lamin B1. Consistent with these findings, we also determine that DYT1 dystonia patient-derived fibroblasts are more compliant than fibroblasts isolated from unafflicted individuals. DYT1 dystonia patient-derived fibroblasts also exhibit increased nuclear strain and decreased viability following mechanical stretch. Taken together, our results establish the foundation for future mechanistic studies of the role of cellular mechanotype and LINC-dependent nuclear-cytoskeletal coupling in regulating cell survival following exposure to mechanical stresses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Navjot Kaur Gill
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Chau Ly
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.,Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Paul H Kim
- Department of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Cosmo A Saunders
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| | - Loren G Fong
- Department of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Stephen G Young
- Department of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.,Department of Human Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.,Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - G W Gant Luxton
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| | - Amy C Rowat
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
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24
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Nyberg KD, Bruce SL, Nguyen AV, Chan CK, Gill NK, Kim TH, Sloan EK, Rowat AC. Predicting cancer cell invasion by single-cell physical phenotyping. Integr Biol (Camb) 2019; 10:218-231. [PMID: 29589844 DOI: 10.1039/c7ib00222j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
The physical properties of cells are promising biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Here we determine the physical phenotypes that best distinguish human cancer cell lines, and their relationship to cell invasion. We use the high throughput, single-cell microfluidic method, quantitative deformability cytometry (q-DC), to measure six physical phenotypes including elastic modulus, cell fluidity, transit time, entry time, cell size, and maximum strain at rates of 102 cells per second. By training a k-nearest neighbor machine learning algorithm, we demonstrate that multiparameter analysis of physical phenotypes enhances the accuracy of classifying cancer cell lines compared to single parameters alone. We also discover a set of four physical phenotypes that predict invasion; using these four parameters, we generate the physical phenotype model of invasion by training a multiple linear regression model with experimental data from a set of human ovarian cancer cells that overexpress a panel of tumor suppressor microRNAs. We validate the model by predicting invasion based on measured physical phenotypes of breast and ovarian human cancer cell lines that are subject to genetic or pharmacologic perturbations. Taken together, our results highlight how physical phenotypes of single cells provide a biomarker to predict the invasion of cancer cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kendra D Nyberg
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, 610 Charles E. Young Dr East, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
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25
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Kim TH, Ly C, Christodoulides A, Nowell CJ, Gunning PW, Sloan EK, Rowat AC. Stress hormone signaling through β-adrenergic receptors regulates macrophage mechanotype and function. FASEB J 2019; 33:3997-4006. [PMID: 30509116 PMCID: PMC6404566 DOI: 10.1096/fj.201801429rr] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2018] [Accepted: 11/05/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Critical functions of immune cells require them to rapidly change their shape and generate forces in response to cues from their surrounding environment. However, little is known about how soluble factors that may be present in the microenvironment modulate key aspects of cellular mechanobiology-such as immune cell deformability and force generation-to impact functions such as phagocytosis and migration. Here we show that signaling by soluble stress hormones through β-adrenoceptors (β-AR) reduces the deformability of macrophages; this is dependent on changes in the organization of the actin cytoskeleton and is associated with functional changes in phagocytosis and migration. Pharmacologic interventions reveal that the impact of β-AR signaling on macrophage deformability is dependent on actin-related proteins 2/3, indicating that stress hormone signaling through β-AR shifts actin organization to favor branched structures rather than linear unbranched actin filaments. These findings show that through remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton, β-AR-mediated stress hormone signaling modulates macrophage mechanotype to impact functions that play a critical role in immune response.-Kim, T.-H., Ly, C., Christodoulides, A., Nowell, C. J., Gunning, P. W., Sloan, E. K., Rowat, A. C. Stress hormone signaling through β-adrenergic receptors regulates macrophage mechanotype and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tae-Hyung Kim
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Chau Ly
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Alexei Christodoulides
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Cameron J. Nowell
- Drug Discovery Biology Theme, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Peter W. Gunning
- School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Erica K. Sloan
- Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
- UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Drug Discovery Biology Theme, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Division of Cancer Surgery, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; and
- UCLA AIDS Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Amy C. Rowat
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
- UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
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26
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Gill NK, Ly C, Nyberg KD, Lee L, Qi D, Tofig B, Reis-Sobreiro M, Dorigo O, Rao J, Wiedemeyer R, Karlan B, Lawrenson K, Freeman MR, Damoiseaux R, Rowat AC. A scalable filtration method for high throughput screening based on cell deformability. LAB ON A CHIP 2019; 19:343-357. [PMID: 30566156 DOI: 10.1039/c8lc00922h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Cell deformability is a label-free biomarker of cell state in physiological and disease contexts ranging from stem cell differentiation to cancer progression. Harnessing deformability as a phenotype for screening applications requires a method that can simultaneously measure the deformability of hundreds of cell samples and can interface with existing high throughput facilities. Here we present a scalable cell filtration device, which relies on the pressure-driven deformation of cells through a series of pillars that are separated by micron-scale gaps on the timescale of seconds: less deformable cells occlude the gaps more readily than more deformable cells, resulting in decreased filtrate volume which is measured using a plate reader. The key innovation in this method is that we design customized arrays of individual filtration devices in a standard 96-well format using soft lithography, which enables multiwell input samples and filtrate outputs to be processed with higher throughput using automated pipette arrays and plate readers. To validate high throughput filtration to detect changes in cell deformability, we show the differential filtration of human ovarian cancer cells that have acquired cisplatin-resistance, which is corroborated with cell stiffness measurements using quantitative deformability cytometry. We also demonstrate differences in the filtration of human cancer cell lines, including ovarian cancer cells that overexpress transcription factors (Snail, Slug), which are implicated in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition; breast cancer cells (malignant versus benign); and prostate cancer cells (highly versus weekly metastatic). We additionally show how the filtration of ovarian cancer cells is affected by treatment with drugs known to perturb the cytoskeleton and the nucleus. Our results across multiple cancer cell types with both genetic and pharmacologic manipulations demonstrate the potential of this scalable filtration device to screen cells based on their deformability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Navjot Kaur Gill
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
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27
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Engler AJ, Discher DE. Rationally engineered advances in cancer research. APL Bioeng 2018; 2:031601. [PMID: 31069310 PMCID: PMC6481711 DOI: 10.1063/1.5056176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2018] [Accepted: 09/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The physical and engineering sciences have much to offer in understanding, diagnosing, and even treating cancer. Microfluidics, imaging, materials, and diverse measurement devices are all helping to shift paradigms of tumorigenesis and dissemination. Using materials and micro-probes of elasticity, for example, epithelia have been shown to transform into mesenchymal cells when the elasticity of adjacent tissue increases. Approaches common in engineering science enable such discoveries, and further application of such tools and principles will likely improve existing cancer models in vivo and also create better models for high throughput analyses in vitro. As profiled in this special topic issue composed of more than a dozen manuscripts, opportunities abound for the creativity and analytics of engineering and the physical sciences to make advances in and against cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam J. Engler
- Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: . Telephone: 858-246-0678. Fax: 858-534-5722
| | - Dennis E. Discher
- Biophysical Engineering Labs, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
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28
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Raj A, Sen AK. Entry and passage behavior of biological cells in a constricted compliant microchannel. RSC Adv 2018; 8:20884-20893. [PMID: 35542327 PMCID: PMC9080859 DOI: 10.1039/c8ra02763c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2018] [Accepted: 05/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
We report an experimental and theoretical investigation of the entry and passage behaviour of biological cells (HeLa and MDA-MB-231) in a constricted compliant microchannel. Entry of a cell into a micro-constriction takes place in three successive regimes: protrusion and contact (cell protrudes its leading edge and makes a contact with the channel wall), squeeze (cell deforms to enter into the constriction) and release (cell starts moving forward). While the protrusion and contact regime is insensitive to the flexibility of the channel, the squeeze zone is significantly smaller in the case of a more compliant channel. Similarly, in the release zone, the acceleration of the cells into the microconstriction is higher in the case of a more compliant channel. The results showed that for a fixed size ratio ρ and E c, the extension ratio λ decreases and transit velocity U c increases with increase in the compliance parameter f p. The variation in the cell velocity is governed by force due to the cell stiffness F s as well as that due to the viscous dampening F d, explained using the Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic model. The entry time t e = m(ρ) k 1 (1 + f p) k 2 (E c) k 3 and induced hydrodynamic resistance of a cell ΔR c/R = k(ρ) a (1 + k f f p) b (k E E c) c were correlated with cell size ratio ρ, Young's modulus E c and compliance parameter f p, which showed that both entry time t e and the induced hydrodynamic resistance ΔR c are most sensitive to the change in the compliance parameter f p. This study provides understanding of the passage of cells in compliant micro-confinements that can have significant impact on mechanophenotyping of single cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Raj
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras Chennai-600036 India
| | - A K Sen
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras Chennai-600036 India
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29
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Kelleci M, Aydogmus H, Aslanbas L, Erbil SO, Hanay MS. Towards microwave imaging of cells. LAB ON A CHIP 2018; 18:463-472. [PMID: 29244051 DOI: 10.1039/c7lc01251a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Integrated detection techniques that can characterize the morphological properties of cells are needed for the widespread use of lab-on-a-chip technology. Herein, we establish a theoretical and experimental framework to use resonant microwave sensors in their higher order modes so that the morphological properties of analytes inside a microfluidic channel can be obtained electronically. We built a phase-locked loop system that can track the first two modes of a microstrip line resonator to detect the size and location of microdroplets and cells passing through embedded microfluidic channels. The attained resolution, expressed in terms of Allan deviation at the response time, is as small as 2 × 10-8 for both modes. Additionally, simulations were performed to show that sensing with higher order modes can yield the geometrical volume, effective permittivity, two-dimensional extent, and the orientation of analytes. The framework presented here makes it possible to develop a novel type of microscope that operates at the microwave band, i.e., a radar for cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mehmet Kelleci
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bilkent University, Ankara, 06800 Turkey.
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30
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Kim J, Han S, Lei A, Miyano M, Bloom J, Srivastava V, Stampfer MR, Gartner ZJ, LaBarge MA, Sohn LL. Characterizing cellular mechanical phenotypes with mechano-node-pore sensing. MICROSYSTEMS & NANOENGINEERING 2018; 4:17091. [PMID: 29780657 PMCID: PMC5958920 DOI: 10.1038/micronano.2017.91] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
The mechanical properties of cells change with their differentiation, chronological age, and malignant progression. Consequently, these properties may be useful label-free biomarkers of various functional or clinically relevant cell states. Here, we demonstrate mechano-node-pore sensing (mechano-NPS), a multi-parametric single-cell-analysis method that utilizes a four-terminal measurement of the current across a microfluidic channel to quantify simultaneously cell diameter, resistance to compressive deformation, transverse deformation under constant strain, and recovery time after deformation. We define a new parameter, the whole-cell deformability index (wCDI), which provides a quantitative mechanical metric of the resistance to compressive deformation that can be used to discriminate among different cell types. The wCDI and the transverse deformation under constant strain show malignant MCF-7 and A549 cell lines are mechanically distinct from non-malignant, MCF-10A and BEAS-2B cell lines, and distinguishes between cells treated or untreated with cytoskeleton-perturbing small molecules. We categorize cell recovery time, ΔTr, as instantaneous (ΔTr ~ 0 ms), transient (ΔTr ≤ 40ms), or prolonged (ΔTr > 40ms), and show that the composition of recovery types, which is a consequence of changes in cytoskeletal organization, correlates with cellular transformation. Through the wCDI and cell-recovery time, mechano-NPS discriminates between sub-lineages of normal primary human mammary epithelial cells with accuracy comparable to flow cytometry, but without antibody labeling. Mechano-NPS identifies mechanical phenotypes that distinguishes lineage, chronological age, and stage of malignant progression in human epithelial cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junghyun Kim
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720-1740 CA USA
| | - Sewoon Han
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720-1740 CA USA
| | - Andy Lei
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720-1762 CA USA
| | - Masaru Miyano
- Department of Population Sciences, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, Duarte, 91010 CA USA
| | - Jessica Bloom
- Department of Population Sciences, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, Duarte, 91010 CA USA
| | - Vasudha Srivastava
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, 94143 CA USA
| | - Martha R. Stampfer
- Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, CA, 94720 USA
| | - Zev J. Gartner
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, 94143 CA USA
- Graduate Program in Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, and
University of California, San Francisco, Berkeley, 94720 CA USA
| | - Mark A. LaBarge
- Department of Population Sciences, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, Duarte, 91010 CA USA
- Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, CA, 94720 USA
| | - Lydia L. Sohn
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720-1740 CA USA
- Graduate Program in Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, and
University of California, San Francisco, Berkeley, 94720 CA USA
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31
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Yang X, Chen Z, Miao J, Cui L, Guan W. High-throughput and label-free parasitemia quantification and stage differentiation for malaria-infected red blood cells. Biosens Bioelectron 2017; 98:408-414. [PMID: 28711027 PMCID: PMC5558593 DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2017.07.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2017] [Revised: 07/04/2017] [Accepted: 07/08/2017] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
This work reports a high throughput and label-free microfluidic cell deformability sensor for quantitative parasitemia measurement and stage determination for Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cells (Pf-iRBCs). The sensor relies on differentiating the RBC deformability (a mechanical biomarker) that is highly correlated with the infection status. The cell deformability is measured by evaluating the transit time when each individual RBC squeezes through a microscale constriction (cross-section ~5µm×5µm). More than 30,000 RBCs can be analyzed for parasitemia quantification in under 1min with a throughput ~500 cells/s. Moreover, the device can also differentiate various malaria stages (ring, trophozoite, and schizont stage) due to their varied deformability. Using Pf-iRBCs at 0.1% parasitemia as a testing sample, the microfluidic deformability sensor achieved an excellent sensitivity (94.29%), specificity (86.67%) and accuracy (92.00%) in a blind test, comparable to the gold standard of the blood smear microscopy. As a supplement technology to the microscopy and flow cytometry, the microfluidic deformability sensor would possibly allow for label-free, rapid and cost-effective parasitemia quantification and stage determination for malaria in remote regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaonan Yang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802, USA; School of Information Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, China
| | - Zhuofa Chen
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802, USA
| | - Jun Miao
- Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802, USA
| | - Liwang Cui
- Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802, USA
| | - Weihua Guan
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802, USA.
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32
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Kamyabi N, Khan ZS, Vanapalli SA. Flow-Induced Transport of Tumor Cells in a Microfluidic Capillary Network: Role of Friction and Repeated Deformation. Cell Mol Bioeng 2017; 10:563-576. [PMID: 31719874 PMCID: PMC6816673 DOI: 10.1007/s12195-017-0499-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2017] [Accepted: 07/24/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in microcirculation undergo significant deformation and frictional interactions within microcapillaries. To understand the physical parameters governing their flow-induced transport, we studied the pressure-driven flow of cancer cells in a microfluidic model of a capillary network. METHODS Our microfluidic device contains an array of parallel constrictions separated by regions where cells can repetitively deform and relax. To characterize the transport behavior, we measured the entry time, transit time, and shape deformation of tumor cells as they squeeze through the network. RESULTS We found that entry and transit times of cells are much lower after repetitive deformation as their elongated shape enables easy transport in subsequent constrictions. Furthermore, upon repetitive deformation, the cells were able to relieve only 25% of their 40% imposed compressional strain, suggesting that tumor cells might have undergone plastic deformation or fatigue. To investigate the influence of surface friction, we characterized the transport behavior in the absence and presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA) coating on the constriction walls. We observed that BSA coating reduces the entry and transit time significantly. Finally, using two breast tumor cell lines, we investigated the effect of metastatic potential on transport properties. We found that the cell lines could be distinguished only upon surface treatment with BSA, thus surface-induced friction is an indicator of metastatic potential. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that pre-deformation can enhance the transport of CTCs in microcirculation and that frictional interactions with capillary walls can play an important role in influencing the transport of metastatic CTCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nabiollah Kamyabi
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University, 6th St and Canton Ave, Lubbock, TX 79409 USA
| | - Zeina S. Khan
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas Tech University, 6th St and Canton Ave, Lubbock, TX 79409 USA
| | - Siva A. Vanapalli
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University, 6th St and Canton Ave, Lubbock, TX 79409 USA
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33
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Nyberg KD, Hu KH, Kleinman SH, Khismatullin DB, Butte MJ, Rowat AC. Quantitative Deformability Cytometry: Rapid, Calibrated Measurements of Cell Mechanical Properties. Biophys J 2017; 113:1574-1584. [PMID: 28978449 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2017.06.073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 91] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2016] [Revised: 06/14/2017] [Accepted: 06/29/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Advances in methods that determine cell mechanical phenotype, or mechanotype, have demonstrated the utility of biophysical markers in clinical and research applications ranging from cancer diagnosis to stem cell enrichment. Here, we introduce quantitative deformability cytometry (q-DC), a method for rapid, calibrated, single-cell mechanotyping. We track changes in cell shape as cells deform into microfluidic constrictions, and we calibrate the mechanical stresses using gel beads. We observe that time-dependent strain follows power-law rheology, enabling single-cell measurements of apparent elastic modulus, Ea, and power-law exponent, β. To validate our method, we mechanotype human promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60) cells and thereby confirm q-DC measurements of Ea = 0.53 ± 0.04 kPa. We also demonstrate that q-DC is sensitive to pharmacological perturbations of the cytoskeleton as well as differences in the mechanotype of human breast cancer cell lines (Ea = 2.1 ± 0.1 and 0.80 ± 0.19 kPa for MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells). To establish an operational framework for q-DC, we investigate the effects of applied stress and cell/pore-size ratio on mechanotype measurements. We show that Ea increases with applied stress, which is consistent with stress stiffening behavior of cells. We also find that Ea increases for larger cell/pore-size ratios, even when the same applied stress is maintained; these results indicate strain stiffening and/or dependence of mechanotype on deformation depth. Taken together, the calibrated measurements enabled by q-DC should advance applications of cell mechanotype in basic research and clinical settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kendra D Nyberg
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, California; Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California
| | - Kenneth H Hu
- Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California
| | - Sara H Kleinman
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, California
| | | | - Manish J Butte
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Los Angeles, California; Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, California
| | - Amy C Rowat
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, California; Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California; UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, California; Broad Stem Cell Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles, California; Center for Biological Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, California.
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34
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Toyoda Y, Cattin CJ, Stewart MP, Poser I, Theis M, Kurzchalia TV, Buchholz F, Hyman AA, Müller DJ. Genome-scale single-cell mechanical phenotyping reveals disease-related genes involved in mitotic rounding. Nat Commun 2017; 8:1266. [PMID: 29097687 PMCID: PMC5668354 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01147-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2017] [Accepted: 08/22/2017] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
To divide, most animal cells drastically change shape and round up against extracellular confinement. Mitotic cells facilitate this process by generating intracellular pressure, which the contractile actomyosin cortex directs into shape. Here, we introduce a genome-scale microcantilever- and RNAi-based approach to phenotype the contribution of > 1000 genes to the rounding of single mitotic cells against confinement. Our screen analyzes the rounding force, pressure and volume of mitotic cells and localizes selected proteins. We identify 49 genes relevant for mitotic rounding, a large portion of which have not previously been linked to mitosis or cell mechanics. Among these, depleting the endoplasmic reticulum-localized protein FAM134A impairs mitotic progression by affecting metaphase plate alignment and pressure generation by delocalizing cortical myosin II. Furthermore, silencing the DJ-1 gene uncovers a link between mitochondria-associated Parkinson's disease and mitotic pressure. We conclude that mechanical phenotyping is a powerful approach to study the mechanisms governing cell shape.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yusuke Toyoda
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108, 01307, Dresden, Germany.,Division of Cell Biology, Life Science Institute, Kurume University, Hyakunen-Kohen 1-1, Kurume, Fukuoka, 839-0864, Japan
| | - Cedric J Cattin
- Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, Mattenstrasse 26, 4058, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Martin P Stewart
- Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, Mattenstrasse 26, 4058, Basel, Switzerland.,Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 500 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139-4307, USA.,The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 500 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139-4307, USA
| | - Ina Poser
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Mirko Theis
- UCC, Medical System biology, Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus, University of Technology Dresden, Am Tatzberg 47/49, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Teymuras V Kurzchalia
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Frank Buchholz
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108, 01307, Dresden, Germany.,UCC, Medical System biology, Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus, University of Technology Dresden, Am Tatzberg 47/49, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Anthony A Hyman
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108, 01307, Dresden, Germany.
| | - Daniel J Müller
- Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, Mattenstrasse 26, 4058, Basel, Switzerland.
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35
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Raj A, Dixit M, Doble M, Sen AK. A combined experimental and theoretical approach towards mechanophenotyping of biological cells using a constricted microchannel. LAB ON A CHIP 2017; 17:3704-3716. [PMID: 28983550 DOI: 10.1039/c7lc00599g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
We report a combined experimental and theoretical technique that enables the characterization of various mechanical properties of biological cells. The cells were infused into a microfluidic device that comprises multiple parallel micro-constrictions to eliminate device clogging and facilitate characterization of cells of different sizes and types on a single device. The extension ratio λ and transit velocity Uc of the cells were measured using high-speed and high-resolution imaging which were then used in a theoretical model to predict the Young's modulus Ec = f(λ, Uc) of the cells. The predicted Young's modulus Ec values for three different cell lines (182 ± 34.74 Pa for MDA MB 231, 360 ± 75 Pa for MCF 10A and, 763 ± 93 Pa for HeLa) compare well with those reported in the literature from micropipette measurements and atomic force microscopy measurement within 10% and 15%, respectively. Also, the Young's modulus of MDA-MB-231 cells treated with 50 μM 4-hyrdroxyacetophenone (for localization of myosin II) for 30 min was found out to be 260 ± 52 Pa. The entry time te of cells into the micro-constrictions was predicted using the model and validated using experimentally measured data. The entry and transit behaviors of cells in the micro-constriction including cell deformation (extension ratio λ) and velocity Uc were experimentally measured and used to predict various cell properties such as the Young's modulus, cytoplasmic viscosity and induced hydrodynamic resistance of different types of cells. The proposed combined experimental and theoretical approach leads to a new paradigm for mechanophenotyping of biological cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Raj
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600036, India.
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36
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Hansen CE, Lam WA. Clinical Implications of Single-Cell Microfluidic Devices for Hematological Disorders. Anal Chem 2017; 89:11881-11892. [PMID: 28942646 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.7b01013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Single-cell microfluidic devices are poised to substantially impact the hematology field by providing a high-throughput and rapid device to analyze disease-mediated biophysical cellular changes in the clinical setting in order to diagnose patients and monitor disease prognosis. In this Feature, we cover recent advances of single-cell microfluidic devices for studying and diagnosing hematological dysfunctions and the clinical impact made possible by these advances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline E Hansen
- Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta/Emory University School of Medicine , Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States.,Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States.,School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Wilbur A Lam
- Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta/Emory University School of Medicine , Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States.,Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States.,School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
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37
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Hanasaki I, Walther JH. Suspended particle transport through constriction channel with Brownian motion. Phys Rev E 2017; 96:023109. [PMID: 28950651 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.96.023109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
It is well known that translocation events of a polymer or rod through pores or narrower parts of micro- and nanochannels have a stochastic nature due to the Brownian motion. However, it is not clear whether the objects of interest need to have a larger size than the entrance to exhibit the deviation from the dynamics of the surrounding fluid. We show by numerical analysis that the particle injection into the narrower part of the channel is affected by thermal fluctuation, where the particles have spherical symmetry and are smaller than the height of the constriction. The Péclet number (Pe) is the order parameter that governs the phenomena, which clarifies the spatio-temporal significance of Brownian motion compared to hydrodynamics. Furthermore, we find that there exists an optimal condition of Pe to attain the highest flow rate of particles relative to the dispersant fluid flow. Our finding is important in science and technology from nanopore DNA sequencers and lab-on-a-chip devices to filtration by porous materials and chromatography.
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Affiliation(s)
- Itsuo Hanasaki
- Institute of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Naka-cho 2-24-16, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan
| | - Jens H Walther
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Building 403, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Chair of Computational Science, ETH Zentrum, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland
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38
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Deng Y, Davis SP, Yang F, Paulsen KS, Kumar M, Sinnott DeVaux R, Wang X, Conklin DS, Oberai A, Herschkowitz JI, Chung AJ. Inertial Microfluidic Cell Stretcher (iMCS): Fully Automated, High-Throughput, and Near Real-Time Cell Mechanotyping. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2017; 13:10.1002/smll.201700705. [PMID: 28544415 PMCID: PMC5565626 DOI: 10.1002/smll.201700705] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2017] [Revised: 03/30/2017] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
Mechanical biomarkers associated with cytoskeletal structures have been reported as powerful label-free cell state identifiers. In order to measure cell mechanical properties, traditional biophysical (e.g., atomic force microscopy, micropipette aspiration, optical stretchers) and microfluidic approaches were mainly employed; however, they critically suffer from low-throughput, low-sensitivity, and/or time-consuming and labor-intensive processes, not allowing techniques to be practically used for cell biology research applications. Here, a novel inertial microfluidic cell stretcher (iMCS) capable of characterizing large populations of single-cell deformability near real-time is presented. The platform inertially controls cell positions in microchannels and deforms cells upon collision at a T-junction with large strain. The cell elongation motions are recorded, and thousands of cell deformability information is visualized near real-time similar to traditional flow cytometry. With a full automation, the entire cell mechanotyping process runs without any human intervention, realizing a user friendly and robust operation. Through iMCS, distinct cell stiffness changes in breast cancer progression and epithelial mesenchymal transition are reported, and the use of the platform for rapid cancer drug discovery is shown as well. The platform returns large populations of single-cell quantitative mechanical properties (e.g., shear modulus) on-the-fly with high statistical significances, enabling actual usages in clinical and biophysical studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanxiang Deng
- Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA
| | - Steven P Davis
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cancer Research Center, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY, 12144, USA
| | - Fan Yang
- Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA
| | - Kevin S Paulsen
- Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA
| | - Maneesh Kumar
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cancer Research Center, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY, 12144, USA
| | - Rebecca Sinnott DeVaux
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cancer Research Center, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY, 12144, USA
| | - Xianhui Wang
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cancer Research Center, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY, 12144, USA
| | - Douglas S Conklin
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cancer Research Center, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY, 12144, USA
| | - Assad Oberai
- Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA
| | - Jason I Herschkowitz
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cancer Research Center, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY, 12144, USA
| | - Aram J Chung
- Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA
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39
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Lange JR, Metzner C, Richter S, Schneider W, Spermann M, Kolb T, Whyte G, Fabry B. Unbiased High-Precision Cell Mechanical Measurements with Microconstrictions. Biophys J 2017; 112:1472-1480. [PMID: 28402889 PMCID: PMC5389962 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2017.02.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2016] [Revised: 01/25/2017] [Accepted: 02/16/2017] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We describe a quantitative, high-precision, high-throughput method for measuring the mechanical properties of cells in suspension with a microfluidic device, and for relating cell mechanical responses to protein expression levels. Using a high-speed (750 fps) charge-coupled device camera, we measure the driving pressure Δp, maximum cell deformation εmax, and entry time tentry of cells in an array of microconstrictions. From these measurements, we estimate population averages of elastic modulus E and fluidity β (the power-law exponent of the cell deformation in response to a step change in pressure). We find that cell elasticity increases with increasing strain εmax according to E ∼ εmax, and with increasing pressure according to E ∼ Δp. Variable cell stress due to driving pressure fluctuations and variable cell strain due to cell size fluctuations therefore cause significant variability between measurements. To reduce measurement variability, we use a histogram matching method that selects and analyzes only those cells from different measurements that have experienced the same pressure and strain. With this method, we investigate the influence of measurement parameters on the resulting cell elastic modulus and fluidity. We find a small but significant softening of cells with increasing time after cell harvesting. Cells harvested from confluent cultures are softer compared to cells harvested from subconfluent cultures. Moreover, cell elastic modulus increases with decreasing concentration of the adhesion-reducing surfactant pluronic. Lastly, we simultaneously measure cell mechanics and fluorescence signals of cells that overexpress the GFP-tagged nuclear envelope protein lamin A. We find a dose-dependent increase in cell elastic modulus and decrease in cell fluidity with increasing lamin A levels. Together, our findings demonstrate that histogram matching of pressure, strain, and protein expression levels greatly reduces the variability between measurements and enables us to reproducibly detect small differences in cell mechanics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janina R Lange
- Biophysics Group, Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Claus Metzner
- Biophysics Group, Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Sebastian Richter
- Biophysics Group, Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Werner Schneider
- Biophysics Group, Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Monika Spermann
- Biophysics Group, Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Thorsten Kolb
- Division of Molecular Genetics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Graeme Whyte
- IB3: Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering, Department of Physics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Ben Fabry
- Biophysics Group, Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
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40
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Lin J, Kim D, Tse HT, Tseng P, Peng L, Dhar M, Karumbayaram S, Di Carlo D. High-throughput physical phenotyping of cell differentiation. MICROSYSTEMS & NANOENGINEERING 2017; 3:17013. [PMID: 31057860 PMCID: PMC6445007 DOI: 10.1038/micronano.2017.13] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2016] [Revised: 11/23/2016] [Accepted: 12/21/2016] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
In this report, we present multiparameter deformability cytometry (m-DC), in which we explore a large set of parameters describing the physical phenotypes of pluripotent cells and their derivatives. m-DC utilizes microfluidic inertial focusing and hydrodynamic stretching of single cells in conjunction with high-speed video recording to realize high-throughput characterization of over 20 different cell motion and morphology-derived parameters. Parameters extracted from videos include size, deformability, deformation kinetics, and morphology. We train support vector machines that provide evidence that these additional physical measurements improve classification of induced pluripotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, neural stem cells, and their derivatives compared to size and deformability alone. In addition, we utilize visual interactive stochastic neighbor embedding to visually map the high-dimensional physical phenotypic spaces occupied by these stem cells and their progeny and the pathways traversed during differentiation. This report demonstrates the potential of m-DC for improving understanding of physical differences that arise as cells differentiate and identifying cell subpopulations in a label-free manner. Ultimately, such approaches could broaden our understanding of subtle changes in cell phenotypes and their roles in human biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Lin
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Donghyuk Kim
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Henry T. Tse
- CytoVale Inc., 384 Oyster Point Boulevard #7 South, San Francisco, CA 94080, USA
| | - Peter Tseng
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA
| | - Lillian Peng
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Manjima Dhar
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Saravanan Karumbayaram
- Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Dino Di Carlo
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- California NanoSystems Institute, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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41
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Nguyen AV, Nyberg KD, Scott MB, Welsh AM, Nguyen AH, Wu N, Hohlbauch SV, Geisse NA, Gibb EA, Robertson AG, Donahue TR, Rowat AC. Stiffness of pancreatic cancer cells is associated with increased invasive potential. Integr Biol (Camb) 2016; 8:1232-1245. [PMID: 27761545 PMCID: PMC5866717 DOI: 10.1039/c6ib00135a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Metastasis is a fundamentally physical process in which cells are required to deform through narrow gaps as they invade surrounding tissues and transit to distant sites. In many cancers, more invasive cells are more deformable than less invasive cells, but the extent to which mechanical phenotype, or mechanotype, can predict disease aggressiveness in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains unclear. Here we investigate the invasive potential and mechanical properties of immortalized PDAC cell lines derived from primary tumors and a secondary metastatic site, as well as noncancerous pancreatic ductal cells. To investigate how invasive behavior is associated with cell mechanotype, we flow cells through micron-scale pores using parallel microfiltration and microfluidic deformability cytometry; these results show that the ability of PDAC cells to passively transit through pores is only weakly correlated with their invasive potential. We also measure the Young's modulus of pancreatic ductal cells using atomic force microscopy, which reveals that there is a strong association between cell stiffness and invasive potential in PDAC cells. To determine the molecular origins of the variability in mechanotype across our PDAC cell lines, we analyze RNAseq data for genes that are known to regulate cell mechanotype. Our results show that vimentin, actin, and lamin A are among the most differentially expressed mechanoregulating genes across our panel of PDAC cell lines, as well as a cohort of 38 additional PDAC cell lines. We confirm levels of these proteins across our cell panel using immunoblotting, and find that levels of lamin A increase with both invasive potential and Young's modulus. Taken together, we find that stiffer PDAC cells are more invasive than more compliant cells, which challenges the paradigm that decreased cell stiffness is a hallmark of metastatic potential.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angelyn V Nguyen
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
| | - Kendra D Nyberg
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. and Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Michael B Scott
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
| | - Alia M Welsh
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Andrew H Nguyen
- Department of General Surgery, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Nanping Wu
- Department of General Surgery, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Sophia V Hohlbauch
- Asylum Research, an Oxford Instruments Company, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - Nicholas A Geisse
- Asylum Research, an Oxford Instruments Company, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - Ewan A Gibb
- Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - A Gordon Robertson
- Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Timothy R Donahue
- Department of General Surgery, University of California, Los Angeles, USA and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Amy C Rowat
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. and Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, USA and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
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42
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Kim TH, Gill NK, Nyberg KD, Nguyen AV, Hohlbauch SV, Geisse NA, Nowell CJ, Sloan EK, Rowat AC. Cancer cells become less deformable and more invasive with activation of β-adrenergic signaling. J Cell Sci 2016; 129:4563-4575. [PMID: 27875276 DOI: 10.1242/jcs.194803] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2016] [Accepted: 11/06/2016] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Invasion by cancer cells is a crucial step in metastasis. An oversimplified view in the literature is that cancer cells become more deformable as they become more invasive. β-adrenergic receptor (βAR) signaling drives invasion and metastasis, but the effects on cell deformability are not known. Here, we show that activation of β-adrenergic signaling by βAR agonists reduces the deformability of highly metastatic human breast cancer cells, and that these stiffer cells are more invasive in vitro We find that βAR activation also reduces the deformability of ovarian, prostate, melanoma and leukemia cells. Mechanistically, we show that βAR-mediated cell stiffening depends on the actin cytoskeleton and myosin II activity. These changes in cell deformability can be prevented by pharmacological β-blockade or genetic knockout of the β2-adrenergic receptor. Our results identify a β2-adrenergic-Ca2+-actin axis as a new regulator of cell deformability, and suggest that the relationship between cell mechanical properties and invasion might be dependent on context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tae-Hyung Kim
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA.,Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA
| | - Navjot Kaur Gill
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA
| | - Kendra D Nyberg
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA.,Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA
| | - Angelyn V Nguyen
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA
| | - Sophia V Hohlbauch
- Asylum Research, an Oxford Instruments Company, Santa Barbara, CA 93117, USA
| | - Nicholas A Geisse
- Asylum Research, an Oxford Instruments Company, Santa Barbara, CA 93117, USA
| | - Cameron J Nowell
- Drug Discovery Biology Theme, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
| | - Erica K Sloan
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA.,Drug Discovery Biology Theme, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia.,Division of Cancer Surgery, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia.,UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA.,UCLA AIDS Institute, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA
| | - Amy C Rowat
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA .,Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA.,UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA
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43
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Chan CK, Pan Y, Nyberg K, Marra MA, Lim EL, Jones SJM, Maar D, Gibb EA, Gunaratne PH, Robertson AG, Rowat AC. Tumour-suppressor microRNAs regulate ovarian cancer cell physical properties and invasive behaviour. Open Biol 2016; 6:160275. [PMID: 27906134 PMCID: PMC5133448 DOI: 10.1098/rsob.160275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2016] [Accepted: 11/03/2016] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The activities of pathways that regulate malignant transformation can be influenced by microRNAs (miRs). Recently, we showed that increased expression of five tumour-suppressor miRs, miR-508-3p, miR-508-5p, miR-509-3p, miR-509-5p and miR-130b-3p, correlate with improved clinical outcomes in human ovarian cancer patients, and that miR-509-3p attenuates invasion of ovarian cancer cell lines. Here, we investigate the mechanism underlying this reduced invasive potential by assessing the impact of these five miRs on the physical properties of cells. Human ovarian cancer cells (HEYA8, OVCAR8) that are transfected with miR mimics representing these five miRs exhibit decreased invasion through collagen matrices, increased cell size and reduced deformability as measured by microfiltration and microfluidic assays. To understand the molecular basis of altered invasion and deformability induced by these miRs, we use predicted and validated mRNA targets that encode structural and signalling proteins that regulate cell mechanical properties. Combined with analysis of gene transcripts by real-time PCR and image analysis of F-actin in single cells, our results suggest that these tumour-suppressor miRs may alter cell physical properties by regulating the actin cytoskeleton. Our findings provide biophysical insights into how tumour-suppressor miRs can regulate the invasive behaviour of ovarian cancer cells, and identify potential therapeutic targets that may be implicated in ovarian cancer progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clara K Chan
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Yinghong Pan
- Department of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Kendra Nyberg
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Marco A Marra
- British Columbia Cancer Agency, Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Emilia L Lim
- British Columbia Cancer Agency, Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Steven J M Jones
- British Columbia Cancer Agency, Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Dianna Maar
- Bio-Rad Laboratories, The Digital Biology Center, Pleasanton, CA, USA
| | - Ewan A Gibb
- British Columbia Cancer Agency, Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Preethi H Gunaratne
- Department of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
- Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - A Gordon Robertson
- British Columbia Cancer Agency, Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Amy C Rowat
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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