Effect of 17β-estradiol on the elasticity of MCF-7 cells by atomic force microscopy

Estrogen plays an important role in the development and progression of breast cancer, and it promotes proliferation, invasion and metastasis of breast cancer cells. In this paper, we investigated the effect of estrogen on the elasticity of breast cancer cells. 17β-estradiol, one of the most active estrogens in the human body was applied to MCF-7 living cells and the elasticity of breast cancer cells was measured by atomic force microscopy. The force spectroscopy was performed on the center of the cell and the Hertz model was used to calculate the elasticity modulus. Furthermore, the confocal fluorescence imaging was taken to observe the effect of 17β-estradiol on the actin distribution in the cells. The results show that the elasticity of the cells decreases rapidly after the addition of 17β-estradiol, which indicates that the cells appear softer for 17β-estradiol’s treatment. From the confocal imaging, it can be observed that the actin filament rearranged for 17β-estradiol’s treatment, which may lead to the alteration of the cell elasticity. Our findings may deepen our understanding on the rapid effect of 17β-estradiol to MCF-7 cells.