Measuring Cell Mechanical Properties Using Microindentation

Quantifying cell mechanical properties is of interest to better understand both physiological and pathological cellular processes. Cell mechanical properties are quantified by a finite set of parameters such as the effective Young’s modulus or the effective viscosity. These parameters can be extracted by applying controlled forces to a cell and by quantifying the resulting deformation of the cell. Microindentation consists in pressing a cell with a calibrated spring terminated by a rigid tip and by measuring the resulting indentation of the cell. We have developed a microindentation technique that uses a flexible micropipette as a spring. The micropipette has a microbead at its tip, and this spherical geometry allows using analytical models to extract cell mechanical properties from microindentation experiments. We use another micropipette to hold the cell to be indented, which makes this technique well suited to study nonadherent cells, but we also describe how to use this technique on adherent cells.