Influence of cell shape on sonoporation efficiency in microbubble-facilitated delivery using micropatterned cell arrays.

Microbubble-facilitated sonoporation is a rapid, versatile, and non-viral intracellular delivery technique with potential for clinical and ex vivo cell engineering applications. We developed a micropatterning-based approach to investigate the impact of cell shape on sonoporation efficacy. Cationic microbubbles were employed to enhance sonoporation by binding to the cell membrane electrostatically.

Cell mechanical responses to subcellular perturbations generated by ultrasound and targeted microbubbles.

The inherently dynamic and anisotropic microenvironment of cells imposes not only global and slow physical stimulations on cells but also acute and local perturbations. However, cell mechanical responses to transient subcellular physical signals remain unclear. In this study, acoustically activated targeted microbubbles were used to exert mechanical perturbations to single cells.