Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Nat Methods. 2019 Mar;16(3):263-269. doi: 10.1038/s41592-019-0326-x. Epub 2019 Feb 11.
The monitoring of mechanics in a single cell throughout the cell cycle has been hampered by the invasiveness of mechanical measurements. Here we quantify mechanical properties via acoustic scattering of waves from a cell inside a fluid-filled vibrating cantilever with a temporal resolution of < 1 min. Through simulations, experiments with hydrogels and the use of chemically perturbed cells, we show that our readout, the size-normalized acoustic scattering (SNACS), measures stiffness. To demonstrate the noninvasiveness of SNACS over successive cell cycles, we used measurements that resulted in deformations of < 15 nm. The cells maintained constant SNACS throughout interphase but showed dynamic changes during mitosis. Our work provides a basis for understanding how growing cells maintain mechanical integrity, and demonstrates that acoustic scattering can be used to noninvasively probe subtle and transient dynamics.
在细胞周期中对单细胞的力学进行监测一直受到力学测量的侵入性的阻碍。在这里，我们通过测量充满液体的振动悬臂内的细胞产生的波的声散射来定量力学特性，其时间分辨率小于 1 分钟。通过模拟、水凝胶实验以及使用化学干扰细胞，我们表明我们的读出量，尺寸归一化声散射（SNACS），可以测量刚度。为了证明 SNACS 在连续的细胞周期中的非侵入性，我们使用了导致小于 15nm 变形的测量方法。细胞在整个间期保持恒定的 SNACS，但在有丝分裂期间显示出动态变化。我们的工作为理解生长细胞如何保持机械完整性提供了基础，并表明声散射可用于非侵入性地探测细微和瞬态的动力学。
