Di Carlo Dino
University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
J Lab Autom. 2012 Feb;17(1):32-42. doi: 10.1177/2211068211431630.
The mechanical properties of cells have been shown to be useful markers of cell state by the biophysics community. Here, I highlight clinical and research problems that this label-free, potentially inexpensive cellular biomarker can address and discuss technical challenges to realize automated instruments to achieve robust and high-throughput mechanical measurements. Important features found in traditional fluorescence-based flow cytometry that can enable cytometry based on mechanical properties (i.e., deformability cytometry) are emphasized, especially the need for throughput, simple operation, multidimensional data visualization, and internal controls. Next-generation approaches to automate deformability measurements of cells are surveyed, and future directions are outlined that promise to bring low-cost mechanical measurements to medicine and biological research.
生物物理领域已表明，细胞的力学特性是细胞状态的有用标志物。在此，我着重介绍这种无标记且可能成本低廉的细胞生物标志物能够解决的临床和研究问题，并讨论实现自动化仪器以进行可靠且高通量力学测量所面临的技术挑战。文中强调了传统基于荧光的流式细胞术所具备的重要特征，这些特征可实现基于力学特性的细胞计数（即变形性细胞计数），尤其是对通量、操作简便性、多维数据可视化以及内部对照的需求。本文还综述了用于自动化细胞变形性测量的下一代方法，并概述了未来的发展方向，有望将低成本的力学测量应用于医学和生物学研究。
