Analysis of single-cell force-spectroscopy data of Vero cells recorded by FluidFM BOT

Abstract

The robotized fluidic-force microscopy (FluidFM BOT) technology enables label-free, high-throughput, and flexible data acquisition, and have found a wide range of applications in single-cell biology. One of its features is to measure the characteristic force-distance (FD) curves produced by living cells during single-cell force-spectroscopy (SCFS). In the present work, African green monkey kidney epithelial (Vero) cells were seeded on a gelatin-coated substrate to mimic their attachment to the extracellular matrix. Vero cells were detached from the substrate with 8 μm aperture micropipette cantilever, and their FD-curves were investigated besides the actual cell size. The results on 19 individual cells indicate that cell size and adhesion force may deviate; however, highly adhered cells require a greater distance to detach them compared to weakly adhered cells. Adhesion force and energy of the cell normalized by their cell area also show rising linear tendencies with the detachment distance. The investigation presents how cellular morphology influences the adhesive properties of Vero cells.