Electrodeformation for single cell mechanical characterization

This paper presents the use of electrodeformation as a method for single cell mechanical characterization in which mechanical properties of SiHa and ME180 cells (two cervical cancer cell lines) were quantified. Cells were directly placed between two microelectrodes with a rectangular ac electric field applied, and cell deformation was recorded under certain experimental conditions. Numerical simulations were performed to model cell electrodeformation based on the Maxwell stress tensor formulation. In these simulations, effects of cell electrical property variations on their electrodeformed behavior were investigated. By comparing the measured morphological changes with those obtained from numerical simulations, we were able to quantify Young's modulus of SiHa cells (601 183 Pa) and ME180 cells (1463 649 Pa). These values were consistent with Young's modulus values (SiHa: 400 290 Pa and ME180: 1070 580 Pa) obtained from conventional micropipette aspiration. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd.