Mechanobiology analysis has been considered one of the important parameters to explore the physiological behavior inside cells. However, the morphology and mechanical characterization of live cells by employing atomic force acoustic microscopy (AFAM) has rarely been investigated to date. In this paper, the morphological and mechanical properties of five various live cells in vitro based on AFAM is detected for the first time. Combining AFAM with inverted optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), it has enabled the imaging of various live cells. According to the AFAM experimental results, the mechanical properties of live cells were obtained by fitting the force-depth curves with Hertz-Sneddon model. The conducted experiments and obtained results verified that it is viable to furnish insights into the multifunctional applicability of the AFAM-based characterization in mechanobiology, which has the advantages of making a contribution to diagnosing diseased cells.
Keywords: AFAM; live cells; mechanical properties; mechanobiology; morphology.