Measurement of single-cell adhesion strength using a microfluidic assay

Despite the importance of cell adhesion in numerous physiological, pathological, and biomaterial-related responses, our understanding of adhesion strength at the cell-substrate interface and its relationship to cell function remains incomplete. One reason for this deficit is a lack of accessible exp...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biomedical microdevices 2010-06, Vol.12 (3), p.443-455
Main Authors: Christ, Kevin V, Williamson, Kyle B, Masters, Kristyn S, Turner, Kevin T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological and Medical Physics
Biomedical engineering
Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Biophysics
cell adhesion
Cell adhesion & migration
Cell Adhesion - physiology
Cell mechanics
Cell Separation - instrumentation
Cell Size
Engineering
Engineering Fluid Dynamics
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis
Flow Cytometry - instrumentation
Fluid dynamics
Mechanotransduction, Cellular - physiology
Mice
Microfluidic Analytical Techniques - instrumentation
Microfluidics
Nanotechnology
NIH 3T3 Cells
Shear flow
Shear Strength
Shear stress
Stress, Mechanical
Tensile Strength - physiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Despite the importance of cell adhesion in numerous physiological, pathological, and biomaterial-related responses, our understanding of adhesion strength at the cell-substrate interface and its relationship to cell function remains incomplete. One reason for this deficit is a lack of accessible experimental approaches that quantify adhesion strength at the single-cell level and facilitate large numbers of tests. The current work describes the design, fabrication, and use of a microfluidic-based method for single-cell adhesion strength measurements. By applying a monotonically increasing flow rate in a microfluidic channel in combination with video microscopy, the adhesion strength of individual NIH3T3 fibroblasts cultured for 24 h on various surfaces was measured. The small height of the channel allows high shear stresses to be generated under laminar conditions, allowing strength measurements on well-spread, strongly adhered cells that cannot be characterized in most conventional assays. This assay was used to quantify the relationship between morphological characteristics and adhesion strength for individual well-spread cells. Cell adhesion strength was found to be positively correlated with both cell area and circularity. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed to examine the role of cell geometry in determining the actual stress applied to the cell. Use of this method to examine adhesion at the single-cell level allows the detachment of strongly-adhered cells under a highly-controllable, uniform loading to be directly observed and will enable the characterization of biological events and relationships that cannot currently be achieved using existing methods.
ISSN:1387-2176
1572-8781
DOI:10.1007/s10544-010-9401-x