Liquid and elastic behaviours of tissues drive their morphology and response to the environment. They appear as the first insight into tissue mechanics. We explore the role of individual cell properties on spheroids of mouse muscle precursor cells and investigate the role of intermediate filaments on surface tension and Young's modulus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpithelial-mesenchymal transition is associated with migration, invasion, and metastasis. The translation at the tissue scale of these changes has not yet been enlightened while being essential in the understanding of tumor progression. Thus, biophysical tools dedicated to measurements on model tumor systems are needed to reveal the impact of epithelial-mesenchymal transition at the collective cell scale.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTissues are generally subjected to external stresses, a potential stimulus for their differentiation or remodeling. While single-cell rheology has been extensively studied leading to controversial results about nonlinear response, mechanical tissue behavior under external stress is still poorly understood, in particular, the way individual cell properties translate at the tissue level. Herein, using magnetic cells we were able to form perfectly monitored cellular aggregates (magnetic molding) and to deform them under controlled applied stresses over a wide range of timescales and amplitudes (magnetic rheometer).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA growing tumor is submitted to ever-evolving mechanical stress. Endoscopic procedures add additional constraints. However, the impact of mechanical forces on cancer progression is still debated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiofabrication
December 2020
Three-dimensional tissue culture, and particularly spheroid models, have recently been recognized as highly relevant in drug screening, toxicity assessment and tissue engineering due to their superior complexity and heterogeneity akin to themicroenvironment. However, limitations in size control, shape reproducibility and long maturation times hinder their full applicability. Here, we report a spheroid formation technique based on the magnetic aggregation of cells with internalized magnetic nanoparticles.
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