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Force Measurements for Cancer Cells

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Cancer Nanotechnology

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1530))

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Abstract

During cytoskeleton remodeling, cancer cells generate force at the plasma membrane that originates from chemical motors (e.g., actin). This force (pN) and its time course reflect the on and off-rates of the motors. We describe the design and calibration of a force-measuring device (i.e., optical tweezers) that is used to monitor this force and its time course at the edge of a cell, with particular emphasis on the temporal resolution of the instrument.

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Acknowledgements

Research supported by NIH grants S10 RR027549-01, R21CA152779, and RO1DC00354 and by the Alliance for Nanohealth 1W81XWH-10-2-0125. We thank Dr. W. E. Brownell who contributed to the design of the instrument, and Dr T. Yuan who also contributed to the design helped assemble and collected the data shown in Fig. 3. We thank Dr. J. N. Myers for providing the HN-31 cancer cell line, and are grateful for discussions with Dr. F. A. Pereira.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bobby R. Alford Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Vivek Rajasekharan, Varun K. A. Sreenivasan & Brenda Farrell

  2. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Vivek Rajasekharan

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University, Sydney, 2109, NSW, Australia

    Varun K. A. Sreenivasan

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  1. Vivek Rajasekharan
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  2. Varun K. A. Sreenivasan
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  3. Brenda Farrell
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Correspondence to Brenda Farrell .

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  1. School of Applied Sciences, Mount Ida College, Newton, Massachusetts, USA

    Reema Zeineldin

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Rajasekharan, V., Sreenivasan, V.K.A., Farrell, B. (2017). Force Measurements for Cancer Cells. In: Zeineldin, R. (eds) Cancer Nanotechnology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1530. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6646-2_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6646-2_12

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