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Updated: May 19, 2026

Measuring the Mechanical Properties of Living Cells Using Atomic Force Microscopy
Published on: June 27, 2013
Tomography and static-mechanical properties of adherent cells
Siowling Soh1, Kristiana Kandere-Grzybowska, Goher Mahmud
1Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Illinois 60208, USA.
Abstract:
A tomography approach is used to reconstruct 3D cell shapes and, simultaneously, the shapes/positions of the nuclei within these cells. Subjecting the cells to well-defined microconfinements of various diameters allow for relating the steady-state shapes of cells to their static-mechanical properties. The observed shapes show striking regularities between different cell types and all fit to a model that takes into account the cell membrane, cortical actin, and the nucleus.

