RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A multi-structural finite element model to simulate atomic force microscopy nanoindentation of single cells
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2019.12.17.879114
DO 10.1101/2019.12.17.879114
A1 Marcotti, Stefania
A1 Reilly, Gwendolen C
A1 Lacroix, Damien
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/12/18/2019.12.17.879114.abstract
AB Single cell mechanical properties represent an increasingly studied descriptor for health and disease. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been widely used to measure single cell stiffness, despite its experimental limitations. The development of a computational framework to simulate AFM nanoindentation experiments could be a valuable tool to complement experimental findings. A single cell multi-structural finite element model was designed to this aim by using confocal images of bone cells, comprised of the cell nucleus, cytoplasm and actin cytoskeleton. The computational cell stiffness values were in the range of experimental values acquired on the same cells for nanoindentation of the cell nucleus and periphery, despite showing higher stiffness for the nucleus than for the periphery, oppositely to the average experimental findings. These results suggest it would be of interest to model different single cells with known experimental effective moduli to evaluate the ability of the computational models to replicate experimental results.