The Technique for Measurement of Cell Adhesion Force

After cells attach the substrata, cells begin to spread and form an organized actin cytoskeleton and complex transmembrane signaling regions, then cells start to express their functions, such as proliferation, differentiation and so on. Therefore, cell adhesion is very important. Recently, a number of studies have investigated cell adhesion from the viewpoint of biochemistry, materials, and mechanics. In this study, we observed the adhesion from mechanical point of view. The objective of this study was to develop a cytodetachment technique to quantitatively measure the adhesive force between cells and substrata. A holder was designed which can hold the probe of the AFM (atomic force microscope) probe, which was integrated to a laser tweezers workstation. A detach rig was setting, which is consisted of the probe of AFM, an AFM probe holder, and a cantilever arm mounted on the laser tweezers workstation. NIH/3T3 fibroblast seed on non-coated glass microscope slide, and test in different test mediums, such as Dulbeccos modification of eagles medium (DMEM)+10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) versus DMEM and Phospate-Buffered Saline (PBS). Detach NIH/3T3 fibroblast at room temperature, 25°C. Cell adhesion force of NIH/3T3 fibroblast in different test mediums. A novel cell-detachment apparatus to measure the adhesion force of a single cell was developed to incorporate into an optical tweezers workstation. The results demonstrate that a greater force is required to detach cells in DMEM+10% FBS versus DMEM and Phospate-Buffered Saline (PBS). In this study, we set a rig to quantify cell adhesion force. And the result of this study showed that adhesion force of NIH/3T3 fibroblast in DMEM+10% FBS is greater then cells in DMEM and PBS.