Mechanical Contact Characteristics of PC3 Human Prostate Cancer Cells on Complex-Shaped Silicon Micropillars

Brandon B Seo; Zeinab Jahed; Jennifer A Coggan; Yeung Yeung Chau; Jacob L Rogowski; Frank X Gu; Weijia Wen; Mohammad R K Mofrad; Ting Yiu Tsui

doi:10.3390/ma10080892

Mechanical Contact Characteristics of PC3 Human Prostate Cancer Cells on Complex-Shaped Silicon Micropillars

Materials (Basel). 2017 Aug 2;10(8):892. doi: 10.3390/ma10080892.

Authors

Brandon B Seo¹, Zeinab Jahed², Jennifer A Coggan³, Yeung Yeung Chau⁴, Jacob L Rogowski⁵, Frank X Gu⁶, Weijia Wen⁷, Mohammad R K Mofrad⁸, Ting Yiu Tsui⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada. bsbseo@uwaterloo.ca.
² Departments of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering, University of California Berkeley, 208A Stanley Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. zjahed@berkeley.edu.
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada. jcoggan@uwaterloo.ca.
⁴ Department of Physics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. cyyab@connect.ust.hk.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada. jrogowsk@uwaterloo.ca.
⁶ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada. frank.gu@uwaterloo.ca.
⁷ Department of Physics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. phwen@ust.hk.
⁸ Departments of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering, University of California Berkeley, 208A Stanley Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. mofrad@berkeley.edu.
⁹ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada. tttsui@uwaterloo.ca.

Abstract

In this study we investigated the contact characteristics of human prostate cancer cells (PC3) on silicon micropillar arrays with complex shapes by using high-resolution confocal fluorescence microscopy techniques. These arrays consist of micropillars that are of various cross-sectional geometries which produce different deformation profiles in adherent cells. Fluorescence micrographs reveal that some DAPI (4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole)-stained nuclei from cells attached to the pillars develop nanometer scale slits and contain low concentrations of DNA. The lengths of these slits, and their frequency of occurrence, were characterized for various cross-sectional geometries. These DNA-depleted features are only observed in locations below the pillar's top surfaces. Results produced in this study indicate that surface topography can induce unique nanometer scale features in the PC3 cell.

Keywords: PC3 cells; contact mechanics; deformation; nanoindentation; pillars; silicon.