Correlating mechanical and gene expression data on the single cell level to investigate metastatic phenotypes.

ABSTRACT: Stiffness has been observed to decrease for many cancer cell types as their metastatic potential increases. Although cell mechanics and metastatic potential are related, the underlying molecular factors associated with these phenotypes remain unknown. Therefore, we have developed a workflow to measure the mechanical properties and gene expression of single cells that is used to generate large linked-datasets. The process combines atomic force microscopy to measure the mechanics of individual cells with multiplexed RT-qPCR gene expression analysis on the same single cells. Surprisingly, the genes that most strongly correlated with mechanical properties were not cytoskeletal, but rather were markers of extracellular matrix remodeling, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, cell adhesion, and

SUBMITTER: Young KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10074148 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature