原子力显微术应用于单细胞水平肿瘤研究的进展

肿瘤现已严重威胁人类的生命健康.过去十年间在细胞生物力学方面的研究进展表明肿瘤的发生发展过程中总伴随着细胞表面超微形貌和机械特性的变化,为肿瘤研究带来了新的认识,有助于发展新型免标记临床疾病诊断技术.原子力显微镜(AFM)以其纳米级空间分辨率,溶液环境下对活体细胞、组织等生物样本进行成像、测量的独特优势,成为肿瘤细胞生物力学研究的重要工具.本文综述了AFM在肿瘤细胞机械特性测量,超微形貌成像,及分子识别方面的研究进展,对其面临的困难和挑战进行了讨论,并对其应用前景进行了展望.

Applications of atomic force microscopy in investigating tumors at the single-cell level

Tumor has now become a huge threat to human life and health. In the past decade, the progress in the research of cell biomechanics has shown that the development of tumor is accompanied by the changes of cell surface morphology and mechanical properties, providing novel insights into tumor research and promoting the development of new label-free diagnosis technology for clinical diseases. Atomic force microscope ( AFM ) has nanometer spatial resolution and can observe the physiological behaviors of native living cells and tissues in aqueous conditions, making it an important tool in the research of tumor cell biomechanics. In this paper, the research progress of AFM in measuring the mechanical properties,imaging ultra-microstructures and recognizing molecular interactions of tumor cells is reviewed. The difficulties and challenges are also discussed.