Dynamic and Depth Dependent Nanomechanical Properties of Dorsal Ruffles in Live Cells and Biopolymeric Hydrogels

The nanomechanical properties of various biological and cellular surfaces are increasingly investigated with Scanning Probe Microscopy. Surface stiffness measurements are currently being used to define metastatic properties of various cancerous cell lines and other related biological tissues. Here we present a unique methodology to understand depth dependent nanomechanical variations in stiffness in biopolymers and live cells. In this study we have used A2780 and NIH3T3 cell lines and 0.5% and 1% Agarose to investigate depth dependent stiffness and porosity on nanomechanical properties in different biological systems. This analytical methodology can circumvent the issue associated with the contribution of substrates on cell stiffness. Here we demonstrate that by calculating 'continuous-step-wise-modulus' on force versus distance curves one can observe minute variation as function of depth. Due to the presence of different kinds of cytoskeletal filament, dissipation of contact force might vary from one portion of a cell to another. On NIH3T3 cell lines, stiffness profile of Circular Dorsal Ruffles could be observed in form of large parabolic feature with changes in stiffness at different depth. In biopolymers like agarose, depending upon the extent of polymerization in there can be increase or decrease in stiffness due variations in pore size and extent to which crosslinking is taking place at different depths. 0.5% agarose showed gradual decrease in stiffness whereas with 1% agarose there was slight increase in stiffness as one indents deeper into its surface.