CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Key Laboratory of Biological Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2021 Sep;8(18):e2100825. doi: 10.1002/advs.202100825. Epub 2021 Aug 2.
The nanomechanical properties of tumor-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) are essential to cancer progression. Here, nanoindentation is utilized on atomic force microscopy (AFM) to quantitatively investigate the nanomechanical properties of human breast cancer cell-derived sEVs at single vesicle level and explore their relationship with tumor malignancy and vesicle size. It is demonstrated that the stiffness of the sEVs results from the combined contribution of the bending modulus and osmotic pressure of the sEVs. The stiffness and osmotic pressure increase with increasing malignancy of the sEVs and decrease with increasing size of the sEVs. The bending modulus decreases with increasing malignancy of the sEVs and is lower in smaller sEVs. This study builds relationship between the nanomechanical signature of the sEV and tumor malignancy, adding information for better understanding cancer mechanobiology.
肿瘤来源的小细胞外囊泡（sEVs）的纳米力学特性对癌症的进展至关重要。在这里，利用原子力显微镜（AFM）上的纳米压痕技术在单个囊泡水平上定量研究人乳腺癌细胞来源的 sEVs 的纳米力学特性，并探索其与肿瘤恶性程度和囊泡大小的关系。结果表明，sEV 的刚度来源于 sEV 的弯曲模量和渗透压的共同贡献。sEV 的刚度和渗透压随着恶性程度的增加而增加，随着 sEV 尺寸的增加而减小。sEV 的弯曲模量随着恶性程度的增加而降低，在较小的 sEV 中较低。本研究建立了 sEV 的纳米力学特征与肿瘤恶性程度之间的关系，为更好地理解癌症力学生物学提供了信息。
