Examination of the relationship between viscoelastic properties and the invasion of ovarian cancer cells by atomic force microscopy

Abstract

The mechanical properties of cells could serve as an indicator for disease progression and early cancer diagnosis. This study utilized atomic force microscopy (AFM) to measure the viscoelastic properties of ovarian cancer cells and then examined the association with the invasion of ovarian cancer at the level of living single cells. Elasticity and viscosity of the ovarian cancer cells OVCAR-3 and HO-8910 are significantly lower than those of the human ovarian surface epithelial cell (HOSEpiC) control. Further examination found a dramatic increase of migration/invasion and an obvious decease of microfilament density in OVCAR-3 and HO-8910 cells. Also, there was a significant relationship between viscoelastic and biological properties among these cells. In addition, the elasticity was significantly increased in OVCAR-3 and HO-8910 cells after the treatment with the anticancer compound echinomycin (Ech), while no obvious change was found in HOSEpiC cells after Ech treatment. Interestingly, Ech seemed to have no effect on the viscosity of the cells. Ech significantly inhibited the migration/invasion and significantly increased the microfilament density in OVCAR-3 and HO-8910 cells, which was significantly related with the elasticity of the cells. An increase of elasticity and a decrease of invasion were found in OVCAR-3 and HO-8910 cells after Ech treatment. Together, this study clearly demonstrated the association of viscoelastic properties with the invasion of ovarian cancer cells and shed a light on the biomechanical changes for early diagnosis of tumor transformation and progression at single-cell level.

Characterization of the Viscoelastic Properties of Ovarian Cancer Cells Membranes by Optical Tweezers and Quantitative Phase Imaging

“…Utilizing various techniques such as the optical stretcher, atomic force microscopy (AFM), shear assays, and magnetic tweezers, the invasiveness of metastatic cancer cells has been demonstrated to correlate with their viscoelastic properties [6][7][8][9][10][11]. For example, using a shear assay technique, Hu et al found that the stiffness of MCF-10A normal breast cells was about 10 times higher than that the stiffness of the highly metastatic MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells, and attributed these differences to differences in the levels of actin expression and organization [11].…”

Ovarian Biomechanics: From Health to Disease

“…In short, The higher incidence of carcinoma out of teratoma and serous tumors may be related to the intense alteration of mechanical features of the cellular and ECM, serving as a potential risk factor which necessitates further investigation (64). A similar outcome was found in a study by Chen et al (65) the elasticity and viscosity of ovarian cancer cells OVCAR-3 (1195.72 ± 122.94Pa) and HO-8910 (996.27 ± 52.56Pa) were significantly lower than those of human ovarian surface epithelial cells (2160.94 ± 167.77 Pa) (65). Further detection showed that the migration/invasion ability of OVCAR-3 and HO-8910 cells was significantly higher than that of the control group.…”

Modeling of Deformable Cell Separation in a Microchannel with Sequenced Pillars

“…We selected the properties of these groups by considering 24 different types of cells including healthy epithelial cells and carcinoma cells from several tissues (breast, lung, prostate, ovaries, bladder) as well as healthy and malignant leukocytes (leukemia, lymphoma). [ 4,57–69 ] A total of 50 randomized simulations were conducted for each of the pillar configurations.…”