Structure–Mechanical Property Changes in Nucleus arising from Breast Cancer

Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Studies in Mechanobiology, Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials book series (SMTEB, volume 4)

Abstract

Nuclear mechanics has attracted much attention in recent years, not only because of its functional role in cell biology, but also its structural role in cell mechanics and mechanotransduction. However, little has been done so far to investigate the nuclear mechanics in the context of cancer cells. Here, nanoindentation using an atomic force microscope was used to characterize the elasticity of isolated nuclei of benign (MCF-10A) and malignant (MCF-7) human breast epithelial cells. Isolated nuclei of malignant cells (MCF-7) were found to have an apparent Young’s modulus that is half of the non-malignant cells (MCF-10A). The underlying lamina (lamin A/C) structure of both cell types was also investigated by confocal microscopy to understand its possible contribution to the mechanical property change of nucleus. This study can potentially provide better insights into metastasis, where a possible contributing factor is the softening of cancer cells arising from a more deformable nucleus.

Keywords

Atomic Force Microscopy Micropipette Aspiration Indentation Force LMNA Gene Inner Nuclear Membrane 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.MechanoBiology InstituteNational University of SingaporeSingaporeSingapore
  2. 2.Division of Bioengineering and Department of Mechanical EngineeringNational University of SingaporeSingaporeSingapore

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