Item Details

title

MICRO-SCALE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF NON-CANCEROUS AND CANCEROUS HUMAN MAMMARY EPITHELIAL CELLS

author

Lee, Hyunsu

abstract

The study of cell mechanics has become an area of great interest over the past 20 years, as it has been shown that the mechanical properties of the cell and the surrounding environment are involved in virtually every cellular process. Cells are designed to sense and respond to the surrounding environment not only biochemically, but also mechanically to perform the function of the cell and maintain homeostasis. Problems in maintaining the internal and external mechanical homeostasis of cells lead to serious diseases such as cancer. Therefore, in addition to biochemical properties, the study of the mechanical properties of cells and the surrounding environment provides new perspectives and helps in understanding how tissues and organs of the body develop and the causes of various diseases. Among the many techniques for quantitative measurements of the elastic modulus of cells, atomic force microscopy is the most widely used technique for adherent cells. In this dissertation, how cell stiffness is influenced by cell confluency and the composition of cell culture media is investigated by using a combination of atomic force microscopy, epifluorescence microscopy, and confocal microscopy. The study of the influence of cell confluency on cell stiffness shows that the mechanical properties of primary human mammary epithelial cells vary as the cells transition from single cells to confluency to a mature layer, and the variance in stiffness comes from the distinct actin filament formation in the three different confluency states. The study of the influence of cell culture media composition on cell stiffness shows that stiffness, morphology, and actin filament formation of benign breast cells significantly change when they are cultured in five different types of culture medium, but in breast cancer cells cultured in the different media, there is no significant change in stiffness or actin filament formation except for morphology.

subject

AFM

cell stiffness

epithelial cells

F-actin

Hertz model

stress fibers

contributor

Bonin, Keith (committee chair)

Vidi, Pierre-Alexandre (committee member)

Kim-Shapiro, Daniel (committee member)

Holzwarth, George (committee member)

Macosko, Jed (committee member)

date

2021-01-13T09:35:21Z (accessioned)

2021-07-12T08:30:14Z (available)

2020 (issued)

degree

Physics (discipline)

embargo

2021-07-12 (terms)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/97952 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Dissertation