Mechanical characterization of mouse embryonic stem cells

Current cell detection techniques are antibody staining of specific protein markers, morphometric parameters and transgenic markers. These assays are often qualitative and do not quantitatively define the outcome of a cell progression during differentiation. Consequently, we propose to characterize the mechanical behavior of embryonic stem cell, which will predict its stage of differentiation during lineage differentiation. Using the atomic force microscope, we have performed several experiments on mouse embryonic stem cells (mESC) roughly 7–17 µm in diameter and height at the interphase stage of the cell cycle process. Specifically, we conducted single indentation studies on undifferentiated and early differentiating (6 days under differentiation conditions) mESC with a cell indentation range of 2–2.5 µm. The data was used to analyze various contact models that can accurately model the geometry of the AFM tip and mESC interaction. With the choice of appropriate contact model, we can determine the accurate modulus of the cell membrane. The experimental results confirmed our research hypothesis that the mechanical property of undifferentiated mESC is different from differentiating (6th day) mESC.

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