A microfluidic rheometer for tumor mechanics and invasion studies

Clinically, the feel, touch, and shape of a solid tumor are important diagnostic methods for determining the malignant state of the disease. However, there are limited tools for quantifying the mechanics and the malignancy of the tumor in a physiologically realistic setting. Here, we developed a microfluidic rheometer – termed the microrheometer – that enables simultaneous measurements of tumor spheroid mechanics and their invasiveness into a 3D extracellular matrix (ECM). The microrheometer consists of a pneumatic pressure control unit for applying controlled static or cyclic compression to tumor spheroids, and a sample chamber for containing spheroid embedded ECM. The innovation here lies in the integration of a polyacrylamide membrane force sensor within the sample chamber, enabling a direct force measurement in a physiologically relevant setting. We found that both tumor stiffness and the viscoelastic properties of the tumor are closely correlated with tumor invasiveness. The microrheometer allowed us to measure tumor mechanics in a short time (less than a minute) and has the potential to be used clinically in the future. We note that the microrheometer here can be easily extended to studies of mechanics of single cell, nucleus, as well as other cell/tissue types.