Measuring biomaterials mechanics with atomic force microscopy. 1. Influence of the loading rate and applied force (pyramidal tips).

ABSTRACT: Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is today an established tool in imaging and determination of mechanical properties of biomaterials. Due to their complex organization, those materials show intricate properties such as viscoelasticity. Therefore, one has to consider that the loading rate at which the sample is probed will lead to different mechanical response (properties). In this work, we studied the dependence of the mechanical properties of endothelial cells on the loading rate using AFM in force spectroscopy mode. We employed a sharp, four-sided pyramidal indenter and loading rates ranging from 0.5 to 20 μm/s. In addition, by variation of the load (applied forces from 100 to 10,000 pN), the dependence of the cell properties on indentation depth could be determined. We then showed that the

SUBMITTER: Weber A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6767567 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature