High Resolution Mapping of Intracellular Mechanical Properties during Key Stages of Cancer Progression

The mechanical phenotype of the living cell is critical for survival following deformations due to confinement and fluid flow. Furthermore, in recent years mechanical interaction between cells and the cellular environment has been implicated as one of the key regulators of cancer progression and malignant transformation. Due to the need to better understand the mechanical properties of invasive cells and how the mechanical phenotype plays a role in cancer progression, several microrheology techniques have been applied to study cell mechanics in a range of in vitro environments. However, many of these techniques have been limited either to studying cells in only one type of environment (e.g. 2D), with limited resolution, or with invasive probes. To begin to address this question, in this dissertation we aim to quantify the mechanical state of cells in a broader range of different contexts and geometries. To do this we use Brillouin microscopy, a non-contact, label free, non-invasive technique which enables us to probe the mechanical response of cells in a wide range of complex microenvironments. Here we introduce an improved Brillouin microscope with improved signal and acquisition speed which enables us to perform biological studies at the single cell level. Using the improved Brillouin microscopy, we find that individual cells can be softer as function of the invasive potential, but that cells are able to dynamically change their mechanical properties across many different contexts. We validate our results using complementary microrheology methods such as atomic force microscopy and broadband optical tweezer microrheology. We directly observe changes in cell mechanics in key processes relevant for metastatic migration, as well as a function of external and internal parameters like morphology, ECM properties, intracellular factors, and cell-cell cooperativity during multicellular tissue organization. These results support the paradigm that the mechanical state of a cell is a dynamic parameter that varies as a consequence of the microenvironmental and functional context, in addition to the observable changes in cell’s mechanical properties due to malignant transformation