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| Poster, Friday, 19:00 |
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| Biomechanical analysis of
primary breast cancer cells
Franziska Wetzel1, Axel
Niendorf2, Josef A. Käs1
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1
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University of Leipzig, Faculty of
Physics and Earth Sciences, Institute of Experimental Physics I, Soft Matter
Physics Division, Linnéstraße 5, 04103 Leipzig, Germany |
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2
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Pathologie Hamburg-West, Lornsenstraße
4, 22767 Hamburg, Germany |
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| Contact:
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Malignant tumors are not aggregations of homogeneous cells but rather complex
formations of diverse cell types and pathological cells in different stages
of aggressiveness. Recent investigations show that the biomechanical properties
of benign cells differ from those of cancerous and metastatic cells. In
order to characterize these biomechanical properties, primary mamma carcinoma
cells are used for measurements and compared to cells obtained from breast
reduction. In the course of this clinical trial, samples from 13 breast
cancer patients, obtained from the pathology Niendorf-Hamper, Hamburg,
were analyzed. Single cells obtained by enzymatic dissociation of the homogeneous
sample are measured using the Optical Stretcher, a two beam laser trap
enabling contact-free, whole cell elasticity measurements. We found that
cells from tumor samples have a broader distribution in deformability than
benign cells, the whole distribution being shifted to higher deformability.
These distribution are non-Gaussian, they have a positive skew which means
a “long tail” towards higher deformations. After deformation, tumor cells
retract towards their original shape. This relaxation behavior is stronger
for malignant cells, single cells even contract against the applied stress.
These findings will help to improve our picture of the heterogeneous
nature of tumor samples, detailed analysis of the “long tail” and contractile
cells might lead to new knowledge about metastatic competent, disseminated
and cancer stem cells.
Fig. 1: A: Example of deformation of tumor and benign
mamma epithelia cells. Tumor cells show a broader distribution, the mean
value is shifted to higher deformation. Both distribution are non-Gaussian
and have a positive skew. B: Relaxation after 2 s of stretching.
Tumor cells show a higher (negative) relaxation. C: Example of deformation
behavior of a contractile cell. The solid line indicates the applied laser
power (A:trap, B:end of stretch, C:trap). |
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