Atomic force microscopy for cell mechanics and diseases

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a powerful technique widely employed in biophysics, for instance to study topography of living cells and cell mechanics. Cell mechanics is a very interesting, biophysical parameter of cells, because it is strongly changed by various cellular processes, for example during cell division, cell movement, differentiation, aging, and also various diseases. Since cancer is a prominent example of changes in mechanical properties of diseases, the concept of the mechanical fingerprint has developed, which makes it possible to distinguish between healthy and diseased cells. In this article we report on various studies of cell mechanics with the AFM. We will first give a brief introduction on AFM principles and operational modes and then we will report on some applications of AFM in the field of cellular biophysics, like discriminating between healthy and cancer cells, as well as distinguishing cancer cells at different stages of malignancy. Overall, we will show that AFM has made a significant contribution in studying the biophysics of cancer and the concept of mechanical fingerprints could find a wide variety of applications in biomedicine and medical diagnostics.