Bioengineers at University of Pennsylvania devise nanoscale system to measure cellu...( University of Pennsylvania researcher...)

University of Pennsylvania researchers have designed a nanoscale system to observe and measure how individual cells react to external forces.

By combining microfabricated cantilevers and magnetic nanowire technology to create independent, nanoscale sensors, the study showed that cells respond to outside forces and demonstrated a dynamic biological relationship between cells and their environment.

The study also revealed that cells sense force at a single adhesion point that leads not to a local response but to a remote response from the cells internal forces, akin to tickling the cells elbow and watching the knee kick.

The cell senses the force that we apply and adjusts its own internal forces to compensate, Chris Chen, an associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Penn, said. This suggests that either the cells cytoskeleton dictates the reaction or the cell organizes a biochemical response. In either instance, cells are adapting at the microscale.

The findings prove useful to more than just an understanding of the mechanics of single cells. Physical forces play a strong role in how whole tissue grows and functions. Using the Penn system, researchers could monitor for differences in how forces are sensed or generated in normal and diseased cells. This could lead to new therapeutic drug targets and to methods for modifying how cells interact with each other.

To study the cells biomechanical response to forces, Chen and his team applied force to each cell using microfabricated arrays of magnetic posts containing cobalt nanowires interspersed amongst an array of non-magnetic posts. In the magnetic field, the posts with nanowires applied an external force to cells cultured on the tops of the posts. Nonmagnetic posts acted as sensors in which traction forces in each cell were measured. Recording the traction forces in response to such force stimulation
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