AFM Discriminates Between Cell Lines

Normal Urothelial Cells and Bladder Tumour Cells

Dec. 18, 2009

We report for the first time the use of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) in discriminating between living normal human urothelial cells (HUC) and bladder tumour cells (MGH) on the basis of their ultrastructure and nanomechanical properties. AFM imaging revealed clear differences in the shapes and dimensions of MGH and HUC cells: MGH cells had the tendency to cluster and therefore they did not spread much compared to their normal counterparts. As a consequence, the dimensions of MGH cells were found to be smaller than those of normal HUCs. We also observed clear differences in the nanomechanical properties of the two types of cells, determined from AFM force spectroscopy (AFM-FS). The nanoscale maximum adhesion force (F _max) and adhesion energy were found to be higher in the MGH cells compared to normal HUC cells, showing that tumour cells are more compliant than normal cells. In addition, the Young's (elastic) modulus (E) of MGH cells was consistently lower than that of their normal counterparts, indicating a higher elasticity of their cell walls. These AFM results clearly demonstrate that the ultrastructural and nanomechanical properties of bladder tumour cells differ from those of normal human urothelial cells. AFM can therefore be used as a potential powerful clinical tool for cell sorting and profiling.

Authors:
Elisabetta Canetta
Ashok K. Adya
Andrew Riches
Simon Herrington
Kishan Dholakia

This poster was presented at NanoBioViews 2009; 14-15 October 2009: http://www.nanobioviews.net

Contact:
Ashok K. Adya
Division of Biotechnology and Forensic Sciences
School of Contemporary Sciences
University of Abertay Dundee
Bell Street
Dundee DD1 1HG, UK
a.k.adya@abertay.ac.uk

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AFM Discriminates Between Cell Lines

Normal Urothelial Cells and Bladder Tumour Cells

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