https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-023-00931-4
Regular Article
Characterizing mechanical properties of epithelial monolayers based on indentation
1
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Institute of Biomechanics and Medical Engineering, Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China
2
Aix Marseille Univ, Université de Toulon, CNRS, CPT, UMR 7332, Turing Centre for Living Systems, Marseille, France
c
shaozhen.lin@univ-amu.fr
d
libome@tsinghua.edu.cn
Received:
25
May
2023
Accepted:
3
July
2023
Published online:
21
July
2023
Epithelial tissues have a variety of functions, such as protection, secretion, and absorption. Appropriate mechanical properties of epithelia are essential to achieve these functions. Based on the indentation technology, we combine experiments, theory, and simulations to characterize the mechanical properties of epithelial monolayers. We measure the Young’s modulus of in vitro cultured epithelial cell monolayers, including MCF-10A human breast epithelial (MCF-10A) cell monolayers and Madin–Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cell monolayers. We find that the elastic moduli of the two kinds of cell monolayers (~ 1 MPa) have the orders of magnitude larger than those of the constituent cells (~ 1 kPa) in an isolated state, suggesting a critical role of intercellular interactions via cell–cell junctions in contributing to tissue stiffness. We also find that the elastic modulus of epithelial cell monolayers increases non-linearly with the cell density: MCF-10A cell monolayers exhibit a sharp increase in modulus beyond a critical cell density of ~ 3000 mm−2, indicating a fluid-to-solid transition as the cell density increases. Our results reveal the significant contribution of cell density and intercellular interactions to the mechanical properties of epithelial tissues, and could provide mechanical insights into the tissue stiffness changes involved in embryo or tumor development.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
