Quantification of mechanical fields inside invasive cancer cells: Description of a new method using Digital Volume Correlation and Confocal Microscopy

Cell invasion process, which appears in the progression of tumors, such as glioblastoma, is highly dependent on cellular mobility. Cellular movement results from the interaction of chemical, biological and mechanical factors both inside and outside the invasive cancer cell. To identify and understand the relationship between these factors, it is necessary to quantify and visualise the extra- and intracellular kinematic fields during cell movement. This study proposes a new methodology for the experimental measurement of full kinematic fields inside cancer cells and the use of a digital twin simulation of the cell to obtain the stress and force fields. This approach combines confocal microscopy, Digital Volume Correlation (DVC), and the Finite Element Method (FEM) to achieve precise and comprehensive measurements. To demonstrate the efficiency of this methodology, highly invasive cells from human glioblastomas have been used as a model, and their mechanical behaviour on a substrate was studied over time during their development.