Maryland Biophysics Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2018;1092:351-364. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-95294-9_16.
In the past decades, there has been increased awareness that mechanical properties of tissues and cells are closely associated with disease physiology and pathology. Recognizing this importance, Brillouin spectroscopy instrumentation, already utilized in physics and material science, has been adopted for cell and tissue biomechanics. For biomedical applications, progress of Brillouin spectrometer technology has been crucial, mainly improvement in the acquisition speed and combination with confocal microscopy, to enable measurement of material longitudinal modulus in three dimensions with high spatial resolution. Micron spatial resolution and high sensitivity allow mapping intracellular modulus and distinguishing between nuclear and cytoplasmic mechanical properties as well as detecting changes due to perturbations of individual cellular components. In cancer, environmental mechanical factors and intracellular mechanics are expected to play an integral role in cancer progression and treatment success. Brillouin confocal microscopy is appealing for many studies in cancer mechanobiology involving both primary tumors and metastatic dissemination. Specifically, Brillouin technology is suitable for experimental scenarios where noncontact mechanical measurements are required such as 3D tumor models, interactions with the extracellular matrix (ECM), investigation of nuclear mechanical properties, or analysis of cells within microfluidic chips.
在过去的几十年中，人们越来越意识到组织和细胞的力学性能与疾病的生理学和病理学密切相关。认识到这一点的重要性，已经在物理学和材料科学中得到应用的布里渊光谱仪技术被用于细胞和组织生物力学。对于生物医学应用，布里渊光谱仪技术的进展至关重要，主要是提高采集速度并与共聚焦显微镜结合，以实现具有高空间分辨率的三维材料纵向模量测量。微米级的空间分辨率和高灵敏度允许绘制细胞内的模量图，区分核和细胞质的力学特性，并检测由于单个细胞成分的扰动而导致的变化。在癌症中，环境力学因素和细胞内力学预计将在癌症进展和治疗成功中发挥重要作用。布里渊共聚焦显微镜在涉及原发性肿瘤和转移扩散的癌症力学生物学的许多研究中很有吸引力。具体来说，布里渊技术适用于需要非接触式力学测量的实验场景，如 3D 肿瘤模型、与细胞外基质 (ECM) 的相互作用、核力学性质的研究或微流控芯片内细胞的分析。
