Guided assembly of cancer ellipsoid on suspended hydrogel microfibers estimates multi-cellular traction force.
Authors
Gerigk, Magda
Publication Date
2021-03-10Journal Title
Phys Biol
ISSN
1478-3967
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Volume
18
Issue
3
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Lee, C., Gill, E. L., Wang, W., Gerigk, M., Terentjev, E. M., & Shery Huang, Y. Y. (2021). Guided assembly of cancer ellipsoid on suspended hydrogel microfibers estimates multi-cellular traction force.. Phys Biol, 18 (3) https://doi.org/10.1088/1478-3975/abd9aa
Abstract
Three-dimensional (3D) multi-cellular aggregates hold important applications in tissue engineering and in vitro biological modeling. Probing the intrinsic forces generated during the aggregation process, could open up new possibilities in advancing the discovery of tissue mechanics-based biomarkers. We use individually suspended, and tethered gelatin hydrogel microfibers to guide multicellular aggregation of brain cancer cells (glioblastoma cell line, U87), forming characteristic cancer 'ellipsoids'. Over a culture period of up to 13 days, U87 aggregates evolve from a flexible cell string with cell coverage following the relaxed and curly fiber contour; to a distinct ellipsoid-on-string morphology, where the fiber segment connecting the ellipsoid poles become taut. Fluorescence imaging revealed the fiber segment embedded within the ellipsoidal aggregate to exhibit a morphological transition analogous to filament buckling under a compressive force. By treating the multicellular aggregate as an effective elastic medium where the microfiber is embedded, we applied a filament post-buckling theory to model the fiber morphology, deducing the apparent elasticity of the cancer ellipsoid medium, as well as the collective traction force inherent in the aggregation process.
Keywords
Paper, tissue mechanics, hydrogel, in vitro models, fiber force probe, helical buckling, Winkler post-buckling
Sponsorship
ERC H2020 StG 758865
China Scholarship Council
Funder references
European Research Council (758865)
Identifiers
pbabd9aa, abd9aa, pb-101296.r1
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1478-3975/abd9aa
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/333230
Rights
Licence:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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