Journal Article

Noninvasive monitoring of single-cell mechanics by acoustic scattering

Miettinen, Teemu P, Katsikis Georgios, Chen, Lynna, Kang Joon Ho, Doyle, Patrick S, Manalis, Scott R, Olcum Selim

2019

Overview

The monitoring of mechanics in a single cell throughout the cell cycle has been hampered by the invasiveness of mechanical measurements. Here we quantify mechanical properties via acoustic scattering of waves from a cell inside a fluid-filled vibrating cantilever with a temporal resolution of < 1 min. Through simulations, experiments with hydrogels and the use of chemically perturbed cells, we show that our readout, the size-normalized acoustic scattering (SNACS), measures stiffness. To demonstrate the noninvasiveness of SNACS over successive cell cycles, we used measurements that resulted in deformations of < 15 nm. The cells maintained constant SNACS throughout interphase but showed dynamic changes during mitosis. Our work provides a basis for understanding how growing cells maintain mechanical integrity, and demonstrates that acoustic scattering can be used to noninvasively probe subtle and transient dynamics.Acoustic scattering in a suspended microchannel resonator can be used to measure mechanical properties of single cells in a noninvasive manner. The approach is applied to follow stiffness changes of individual cells throughout the cell cycle.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: Acoustic properties / Acoustic scattering / Acoustics / Cell cycle / Deformation / Hydrogels / Invasiveness / Mechanical measurement / Mechanical properties / Mechanics (physics) / Mitosis / Monitoring / Organic chemistry / Scattering / Stiffness / Temporal resolution