Stretching cells – An approach for early cancer diagnosis

Abstract Cells express multiple biophysical cues during migration, differentiation, and transformation. Probing and quantifying these biophysical cues could serve as a diagnostic tool for differentiating healthy with neoplastic cells. These biophysical cues may be utilized for diagnostic screening in cancer, as the tumor cells interact with the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). Stress and strain induced by the cancer cells and applied to the cancer cells have effects in cancer progression due to its influence in cell migration. It was reported that the introduction of compressive forces on cancerous cells triggers them to undergo apoptosis. In this report, we evaluated the effects of stretching forces on cancer cells by morphological analyses. We observed that cancer cells decrease their roundness (as determined by perimeter: area); increase their length and form filopodia in the initial stretching cycle. However, due to the increasing rigidity of the cells, they undergo apoptosis in later stretching cycles. These morphological changes were unique to breast cancer (MDA-MB-231) cells compared to the non-cancerous control. Elucidating and quantifying these morphological changes is potentially an early cancer diagnostic tool that may predict the propensity of the cancerous cells undergoing a metastatic transformation.