scholarly journals AFM and FluidFM Technologies: Recent Applications in Molecular and Cellular Biology

Scanning ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Yassine Amarouch ◽  
Jaouad El Hilaly ◽  
Driss Mazouzi

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a widely used imaging technique in material sciences. After becoming a standard surface-imaging tool, AFM has been proven to be useful in addressing several biological issues such as the characterization of cell organelles, quantification of DNA-protein interactions, cell adhesion forces, and electromechanical properties of living cells. AFM technique has undergone many successful improvements since its invention, including fluidic force microscopy (FluidFM), which combines conventional AFM with microchanneled cantilevers for local liquid dispensing. This technology permitted to overcome challenges linked to single-cell analyses. Indeed, FluidFM allows isolation and injection of single cells, force-controlled patch clamping of beating cardiac cells, serial weighting of micro-objects, and single-cell extraction for molecular analyses. This work aims to review the recent studies of AFM implementation in molecular and cellular biology.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Marcotti ◽  
Gwendolen C Reilly ◽  
Damien Lacroix

AbstractSingle cell mechanical properties represent an increasingly studied descriptor for health and disease. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been widely used to measure single cell stiffness, despite its experimental limitations. The development of a computational framework to simulate AFM nanoindentation experiments could be a valuable tool to complement experimental findings. A single cell multi-structural finite element model was designed to this aim by using confocal images of bone cells, comprised of the cell nucleus, cytoplasm and actin cytoskeleton. The computational cell stiffness values were in the range of experimental values acquired on the same cells for nanoindentation of the cell nucleus and periphery, despite showing higher stiffness for the nucleus than for the periphery, oppositely to the average experimental findings. These results suggest it would be of interest to model different single cells with known experimental effective moduli to evaluate the ability of the computational models to replicate experimental results.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Smith ◽  
Fernando Pérez-Cota ◽  
Leonel Marques ◽  
Matt Clark

AbstractBrillouin light scattering (BLS) is an emerging method for cell imaging and characterisation. It allows elasticity-related contrast, optical resolution and label-free operation. Phonon microscopy detects BLS from laser generated coherent phonon fields to offer an attractive route for imaging since, at GHz frequencies, the phonon wavelength is sub-optical. Using phonon fields to image single cells is challenging as the signal to noise ratio and acquisition time are often poor. However, recent advances in the instrumentation have enabled imaging of fixed and living cells. This work presents the first experimental characterisation of phonon-based axial resolution provided by the response to a sharp edge. The obtained axial resolution is up to 10 times higher than that of the optical system used to take the measurements. Validation of the results are obtained with various polymer objects, which are in good agreement with those obtained using atomic force microscopy. Edge localisation, and hence profilometry, of a phantom boundary is measured with accuracy and precision of approximately 60 nm and 100 nm respectively. Finally, 3D imaging of fixed cells in culture medium is demonstrated.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofiane El-Kirat-Chatel ◽  
Yves F. Dufrêne

We establish atomic force microscopy as a new nanoscopy platform for quantifying the forces between fungal pathogens and immune cells.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1878-1882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maximilian Mittelviefhaus ◽  
Daniel B. Müller ◽  
Tomaso Zambelli ◽  
Julia A. Vorholt

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 2162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Gelmi ◽  
Michele Zanoni ◽  
Michael J. Higgins ◽  
Sanjeev Gambhir ◽  
David L. Officer ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 160248 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Jin ◽  
B. Kasal

This study attempts to address the interpretation of atomic force microscopy (AFM) adhesion force measurements conducted on the heterogeneous rough surface of wood and natural fibre materials. The influences of wood surface roughness, tip geometry and wear on the adhesion force distribution are examined by cyclic measurements conducted on wood surface under dry inert conditions. It was found that both the variation of tip and surface roughness of wood can widen the distribution of adhesion forces, which are essential for data interpretation. When a common Si AFM tip with nanometre size is used, the influence of tip wear can be significant. Therefore, control experiments should take the sequence of measurements into consideration, e.g. repeated experiments with used tip. In comparison, colloidal tips provide highly reproducible results. Similar average values but different distributions are shown for the adhesion measured on two major components of wood surface (cell wall and lumen). Evidence supports the hypothesis that the difference of the adhesion force distribution on these two locations was mainly induced by their surface roughness.


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