Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Medical Nanotechnology and Tissue Engineering Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Taleghani Hospital, Parvaneh St., Velenjak, 1985717444 Tehran, Iran.
J Biomech. 2014 Jan 22;47(2):373-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2013.11.020. Epub 2013 Nov 25.
Biomechanical properties of cancer cells have been proposed as promising biomarkers to investigate cancer progression. Cytoskeletal reorganization alters these characteristics in different grades of cancer cells. In the present study based on the micropipette aspiration method, whole body evaluation for two different colon cancer cells was performed to determine viscoelastic parameters of the cells. A finite element model was developed for verification of experiments and predicting some behaviors of cells. Western blot analysis and fluorescence intensity for actin microfilaments and microtubules were performed to measure cell content of the proteins. It was illustrated that the proportion of microtubules and actin microfilaments is different in grade I and grade IV colon cancer cells in a manner that microtubules attain an effectual role in progressive reorganization of cytoskeleton in transition from nonaggressive to malignant phenotypes in cancer cells. Furthermore, it was concluded that larger instantaneous Young's modulus value for high grade cells is related to the existence of extensively build-up actin networks at the cell cortex. Based on the cell mechanics results, a simple parameter is suggested for sorting different grades of colon cancer cells.
癌细胞的生物力学特性已被提出作为有前途的生物标志物来研究癌症的进展。细胞骨架的重组改变了不同分级癌细胞的这些特性。在本研究中，基于微管吸吮法，对两种不同的结肠癌细胞进行了整体评估，以确定细胞的粘弹性参数。建立了有限元模型来验证实验并预测细胞的某些行为。通过 Western blot 分析和微丝和微管的荧光强度来测量细胞内蛋白质的含量。结果表明，在 I 级和 IV 级结肠癌细胞中，微管和肌动蛋白微丝的比例不同，微管在细胞从非侵袭性向恶性表型的过渡中，在细胞骨架的渐进性重组中发挥了有效的作用。此外，还得出结论，高级别细胞较大的瞬时杨氏模量值与细胞皮层中广泛构建的肌动蛋白网络的存在有关。基于细胞力学的结果，提出了一个简单的参数来对不同分级的结肠癌细胞进行分类。
