Experimental Characterization of MCF-10A Normal Cells Using AFM: Comparison with MCF-7 Cancer Cells

Abstract

The mechanical properties of single cells have been recently identified as the basis of an emerging approach in medical applications since they are closely related to the biological processes of cells and human health conditions. The problem in hand is how to measure mechanical properties in order to obtain them more accurately and applicably. Some of the cell’s properties such as elasticity module and adhesion have been measured before using various methods; nevertheless, comprehensive tests for two healthy and cancerous cells have not been performed simultaneously. As a Nanoscale device, AFM has been used for some biological cells, however for breast cells, it has been utilized just to measure elasticity module. To provide a more accurate comparison for the healthy and the malignant cancer cells of breast, mechanical properties of MCF-10A cells such as topography, elasticity module, adhesion force, viscoelastic characteristics, bending and axial rigidity were determined and compared to the MCF-7 cells results obtained in previous works. Results revealed that the healthy breast cells are stiffer and less adhesive in comparison with the cancerous ones. Topography images revealed that cancerous cells have bigger radii. These results can help with the diagnosis of malignant cancer cells and even the level of the disease.