Angelyn Nguyen/UCLA
Study author Kendra Nyberg holding the q-DC device Photo courtesy of
Biophysicists have developed a new method to determine a cell’s mechanical properties, and they believe this method could provide insights regarding cancers, sickle cell anemia, and other diseases.
The method allows researchers to make standardized measurements of single cells, determine each cell’s stiffness, and assign it a number, generally between 10 and 20,000, in pascals.
“Measuring cells with our calibrated instrument is like measuring time with a standardized clock,” said Amy Rowat, PhD, of the University of California Los Angeles.
“Our method can be used to obtain stiffness measurements of hundreds of cells per second.”
Dr Rowat and her colleagues described their method in Biophysical Journal.
The method is called quantitative deformability cytometry (q-DC). It involves a small device (about 1 inch by 2 inches) made of a soft, flexible rubber that has integrated circuit chips like those in computers.
The researchers use gel particles containing molecules derived from seaweed to force cells through tiny pores in the device. As the cells flow through the device, the researchers take videos at thousands of frames per second—more than 100 times faster than standard video.
Dr Rowat and her colleagues used the device to analyze promyelocytic leukemia cells (HL-60) and breast cancer cells.
The researchers believe this work will provide scientists with a more precise, standardized method to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells.
The team thinks that, in the future, their method could be used to track a cancer patient over time to see how a drug is affecting the patient’s cancer cells.
“By using q-DC, we can very rapidly assess how specific drug treatments affect physical properties of single cells—such as shape, size, and stiffness—and achieve calibrated, quantitative measurements,” Dr Rowat said.
She and her colleagues believe q-DC might also help predict how invasive a cancer cell could be and which drugs might be most effective in fighting the cancer, as well as revealing which proteins are important in regulating the invasion of a cancer cell.
The researchers are now applying q-DC to other types of cancer cells. The team would like to better understand the relationship between a cancer cell’s physical properties and how easily cancer cells can spread through the body.
Dr Rowat’s hypothesis is that properties such as stiffness, size, and a cell’s ability to change shape are important in enabling cancer cells to maneuver.
The researchers said they can also use q-DC to measure other types of cells, such as normal and sickled red blood cells.
