Stiffness of MDCK II Cells Depends on Confluency and Cell Size (Biophysical Journal)

Mechanical phenotyping of adherent cells has become a serious tool in cell biology to understand how cells respond to their environment and eventually to identify disease patterns such as the malignancy of cancer cells. In the steady-state, homeostasis is of pivotal importance and cells strive to maintain their internal stresses even in challenging environments and in response to external chemical and mechanical stimuli. However, a major problem exists in determining mechanical properties since many techniques such as atomic force microscopy that assess these properties of adherent cells locally can only address a limited number of cells and provide elastic modules that vary substantially from cell to cell.