Determination of viscohyperelastic properties of tubule epithelial cells by an approach combined with AFM nanoindentation and finite element analysis

Lei Wang; Liguo Tian; Ying Wang; Wenxiao Zhang; Zuobin Wang; Xianping Liu

doi:10.1016/j.micron.2019.102779

Determination of viscohyperelastic properties of tubule epithelial cells by an approach combined with AFM nanoindentation and finite element analysis

Micron. 2020 Feb:129:102779. doi: 10.1016/j.micron.2019.102779. Epub 2019 Nov 13.

Authors

Lei Wang¹, Liguo Tian², Ying Wang², Wenxiao Zhang², Zuobin Wang², Xianping Liu³

Affiliations

¹ Centre of Ultra-precision Optoelectric Instrument Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China. Electronic address: wangleiharbin@hit.edu.cn.
² International Research Centre for Nano Handling and Manufacturing of China, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun, 130022, China.
³ School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.

PMID: 31816494
DOI: 10.1016/j.micron.2019.102779

Abstract

Tubule epithelial cell is a complex element that not only exhibits elasticity behaviour, but also presents nonlinear and time-dependent behaviour during any stage of its life cycle. Responses of tubule epithelial cells to physical stimuli are influenced by their mechanical properties. However, accurately constitution of their mechanical properties is still a challenge and the characterisation mechanism is far from sophisticated. In addition, the particular mechanism that determines the mechanical response is still unclear. In order to overcome this limit, an approach combined with AFM nanoindentation experiment and computation modelling by a viscohyperelastic model is developed to describe the complex behaviour in the current study. Viscohyperelastic parameters of tubule epithelial cells treated and untreated with drug Cytochalasin D are obtained by the optimization algorithm applied in this approach. The comparison between treated and untreated results indicate that larger amount of relaxation was observed due to the disruption of cytoskeleton when using drug Cytochalasin D. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of this approach to monitor the variation of these viscohyperelastic parameters, which can be used as an effective index for renal disease diagnosed and drug evaluation.

Keywords: Atomic force microscopy; Finite element analysis; Tubule epithelial cells; Viscohyperelastic.