应用原子力显微镜分析正常淋巴细胞和Jurkat细胞的形态和机械性质

Morphology and mechanical properties of normal lymphocyte and Jurkat revealed by atomic force microscopy

摘要:

淋巴细胞形态和机械性质的变化与人的健康、疾病的治疗和诊断有着密切关系。本研究利用原子力显微镜研究淋巴细胞和Jurkat细胞形态和机械性质。结果显示, 这3种细胞的形态较为相似, 但通过对力曲线的分析得出这2种细胞的机械性质明显不同。正常淋巴细胞粘弹力范围大致为(796.7±248.5) pN, 而Jurkat细胞分布于(158.5±37.5) pN；正常淋巴细胞的杨氏模量(0.471±0.081 kPa)近4倍于Jurkat细胞(0.0964±0.0229 kPa)；而Jurkat细胞(4.322±0.382 mN/m)的硬度近2倍于正常淋巴细胞(2.278±0.488 mN/m)。结果表明原子力显微镜能可在临床诊断上区分正常细胞与肿瘤细胞, 即使两者形态区别不明显。

Abstract:

Alternations of lymphocyte in biophysical properties (e.g., morphology and viscoelasticity) are related to the human health, disease diagnosis and treatment. Here, we used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to characterize the morphology and mechanical properties of normal lymphocyte and Jurkat. The AFM images revealed that their cell shapes appeared similar. The mechanical properties of the two groups were tracked with AFM-based force spectroscopy. The normal lymphocyte cells had a high adhesion force distribution in (796.7±248.5) pN, whereas the Jurkat cells had a low force distribution in (158.5±37.5) pN. The adhesion force revealed that the Young’s modulus of normal lymphocyte cells (0.471±0.081 kPa) was nearly four times higher than that of Jurkat cells (0.0964±0.0229 kPa) at the same loading rate. The stiffness of normal lymphocyte cells was (2.278±0.488) mN/m and that of Jurkat cells was (4.322±0.382) mN/m. The differences in mechanical properties of normal and cancerous cells were obvious that healthy and diseased states could be clearly distinguished. These results may be applied to the clinic disease diagnosis for distinguishing the normal cells from the cancer ones even when they show similar shapes.