Optical tweezers study of membrane fluidity in small cell lung cancer cells

  • Opt Express. 2021 Apr 12;29(8):11976-11986. doi: 10.1364/OE.420288.
Xuanling Li ,  Zhaowu Chen ,  Yinmei Li ,  Hanci Liang ,  Haowei Wang ,  Ming Li
PMID: 33984967 DOI: 10.1364/OE.420288
Abstract

The fluidity of the cell membrane is closely related to Cancer metastasis/invasion. To test the relationship of membrane fluidity and invasiveness, we first demonstrated that transfection of small RNA miR-92b-3p can significantly increase invasiveness of the small cell lung Cancer cell line SHP77. Then optical tweezers were used to measure membrane fluidity. This study employed continuous and step-like stretching methods to examine fluidity changes in SHP77 cell membranes before and after miR-92b-3p transfection. A newly developed physical model was used to derive the effective viscosity and static tension of the cell membrane from relaxation curves obtained via step-like stretching. Experiments showed that invasiveness and fluidity increased significantly after miR-92b-3p transfection. This study paved the way toward a better understanding of Cancer cell invasion and membrane mechanical characteristics.

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