Development of a method for measuring the contractile force of cells in tissues by increasing the resolution and measuring birefringence in three dimensions

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K19912
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 90:Biomedical engineering and related fields
• Research Institution: Nagoya Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Sugita Shukei 名古屋工業大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (20532104)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 中村 匡徳 名古屋工業大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (20448046)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-06-29 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 複屈折 / リタデーション / 光弾性 / 細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Cells produce contraction force. These contraction forces play an important role in cell functions such as cell migration and generation of muscle force. Although the measurement of the contraction force of cells in tissues is necessary to understand the biological phenomena, such techniques have not been well developed. In this study, we have tried to establish the method of the contraction force of cells in tissues using photo-elasticity. After the confirmation that photo-elasticity can evaluate the contraction force of the incubated cells on a dish, we confirmed this method can evaluate the changes in the force in the cytoskeleton. This indicates the usefulness of the proposed method. Then, we tried to evaluate the force in 3D under the confocal and polarized microscope.

Free Research Field

バイオメカニクス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

細胞が発生する収縮力は，病変で見られるタイプだとその収縮力の大きさが異なるなど，生命活動にも影響するため，この測定は重要な基本技術である．また，この収縮力の大きさは周囲環境で変わることが知られているため，柔らかい基板上で計測する既存法では，生体内環境での収縮力計測ができない．そのため，組織内にいる細胞でも収縮力を測定する方法開発に取り組んだ．収縮力の発生源である細胞骨格にも光弾性法が適用できたことから，光弾性を利用した方法の有用性を確認することができた．しかし，3次元化は達成できておらず，今後の課題克服が必要である．