Estimating anisotropy of single cells using a compliant biaxial stretcher
Listed in
This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.Abstract
Understanding the mechanical properties of single cells is essential for elucidating their responses to mechanical cues and plays a critical role in development, disease progression, and mechanotransduction. However, probing these properties at the single-cell level remains technically challenging. Traditional methods for probing cellular mechanics are often restricted to a single deformation mode and rely on complex instrumentation, limiting their adaptability. Hence, no single platform currently offers multi-modal cell manipulation, which motivates the development of more versatile tools. Towards this, we are developing an ensemble of compliant micromechanisms that enables diverse modes of cell manipulation on a single chip. Building on our earlier work with a uniaxial stretcher, here we demonstrate estimation of cellular anisotropy using a biaxial stretcher. Since the mechanism transforms motion using deformation, cell stretching forces can be estimated through image-based displacement measurements, without additional sensing modalities, considerably simplifying the device fabrication and operation. By assembling these uniaxial and biaxial stretching micromechanisms on a single chip, we can establish a multi-modal manipulation platform for single cells, which can be augmented with shearing and twisting modes in the future. Such a simple and versatile platform presents a paradigm shift in mechanical testing of single cells.