Open AccessMeasure and characterization of the forces exerted by growing multicellular spheroids using microdevice arrays
Author(s) -
Laurène Aoun,
Stanislas Larnier,
Pierre Weiss,
Martine Cazalès,
Ariane Herbulot,
Bernard Ducommun,
Christophe Vieu,
Valérie Lobjois
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0217227
Subject(s) - spheroid , multicellular organism , pillar , stiffness , measure (data warehouse) , biomedical engineering , biophysics , nanotechnology , materials science , chemistry , cell , biology , cell culture , composite material , computer science , structural engineering , engineering , biochemistry , genetics , database
Growing multicellular spheroids recapitulate many features of expanding microtumours, and therefore they are an attractive system for biomechanical studies. Here, we report an original approach to measure and characterize the forces exerted by proliferating multicellular spheroids. As force sensors, we used high aspect ratio PDMS pillars arranged as a ring that supports a growing breast tumour cell spheroid. After optical imaging and determination of the force application zones, we combined 3D reconstruction of the shape of each deformed PDMS pillar with the finite element method to extract the forces responsible for the experimental observation. We found that the force exerted by growing spheroids ranges between 100nN and 300nN. Moreover, the exerted force was dependent on the pillar stiffness and increased over time with spheroid growth.