A serial micropipette microfluidic device with applications to cancer cell repeated deformation studies.

ABSTRACT: Cells are complex viscoelastic materials that are frequently in deformed morphological states, particularly during the cancer invasion process. The ability to study cell mechanical deformability in an accessible way can be enabling in many areas of research where biomechanics is important, from cancer metastasis to immune response to stem cell differentiation. Furthermore, phenomena in biology are frequently exhibited in high multiplicity. For instance, during metastasis, cells undergoing non-proteolytic invasion squeeze through a multitude of physiological barriers, including many small pores in the dense extracellular matrix (ECM) of the tumor stroma. Therefore, it is important to perform multiple measurements of the same property even for the same cell in order to fully appreciate its d

SUBMITTER: Mak M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4657869 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature