Wenxiao Zhang

AFM-detected apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells induced by American ginseng root water extract

American ginseng as a common and traditional herbal medicine has been used in cancer treatment for many years. However, the effect of American ginseng on the cancer cell response (i.e. apoptosis) has not been fully understood yet. Previous studies demonstrated that cellular apoptosis was associated with the changes of mechanical and morphological properties. Therefore, in this study, mechanical and morphological characterizations were carried out by both atomic force microscope (AFM) and inverted optical microscope to investigate the apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (SMMC-7721) cells affected by American ginseng root water extract (AGRWE). The results showed that the cells treated with AGRWE exhibited significantly larger surface roughness, height and elastic modulus values than control group. Moreover, those parameters were upregulated under the higher concentration of AGRWE and longer culture time. Consequently, it indicates that the mechanical and morphological properties can be used as the apoptotic characteristics of SMMC-7721 cells. Also, the increased surface roughness and elastic modulus of cells under the AGRWE treatment have shown that the apoptosis of SMMC-7721 cells can be enhanced by AGRWE. This will provide an important implication for hepatocelluar carcinoma treatment and drug development.

Cleaning of contaminated MFM probes using a BOPP film and external magnetic field

When magnetic samples are tested with a magnetic force microscope (MFM), the probe tip can inevitably be contaminated and magnetic particles are often adhered to the tip surface. The probe with magnetic contamination will seriously affect the quality of morphological and magnetic imaging. In the work, a method for the cleaning of contaminated magnetic probe tips was developed by the use of a biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film together with an external magnet field in an MFM system. In the experiments, an MFM system was used for manipulating the tip to push into the BOPP film with a depth of 50-100nm under a magnetic field and hold for 5s, and the relationships between loading forces and separating forces were studied. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images have shown that the use of the BOPP film together with an external magnet field is effective for the cleaning of contaminated MFM probes. This method can greatly improve the quality of magnetic imaging, prolong the service life of magnetic probes and reduce the experimental costs in many MFM applications.

Study of morphological and mechanical features of multinuclear and mononuclear SW480 cells by atomic force microscopy

This article studies the morphological and mechanical features of multinuclear and mononuclear SW480 colon cancer cells by atomic force microscopy to understand their drug‐resistance. The SW480 cells were incubated with the fullerenol concentrations of 1 mg/ml and 2 mg/ml. Morphological and mechanical features including the height, length, width, roughness, adhesion force and Youngs modulus of three multinuclear cell groups and three mononuclear cell groups were imaged and analyzed. It was observed that the features of multinuclear cancer cells and mononuclear cancer cells were significantly different after the treatment with fullerenol. The experiment results indicated that the mononuclear SW480 cells were more sensitive to fullerenol than the multinuclear SW480 cells, and the multinuclear SW480 cells exhibited a stronger drug‐resistance than the mononuclear SW480 cells. This work provides a guideline for the treatments of multinuclear and mononuclear cancer cells with drugs.

Analysis of Colchicine-Induced Effects on Hepatoma and Hepatocyte Cells by Atomic Force Microscopy

Biomechanical properties of cells are altered by many diseases. Cancer cell metastasis is related to the properties such as the cell stiffness that influences cell proliferation, differentiation and migration. In this paper, we used an atomic force microscope to analyze the colchicine-induced effects on the mechanical properties of hepatocyte (HL-7702 cells) and hepatoma cells (SMCC-7721 cells) in culture at the nanoscale. The cells were exposed to a solution with a normal dose of colchicine for two, four and six hours. Surface topographic images showed that colchicine decreased the stability of the cytoskeleton. After the same six-hour treatment in a solution with a normal dose of colchicine, the biomechanical properties of HL-7702 cells were almost unchanged. However, the stiffness and the adhesion force of the SMCC-7721 cells were clearly increased (more than twofold of the normal values), especially after four hours. The deformability of SMCC-7721 cancer cells was significantly decreased within the six-hour treatment in the solution with a normal dose of colchicine. Analysis of the biomechanical properties of post-treatment hepatoma cells provided a complementary explanation for the mechanism of action of colchicine on cells at the nanoscale. This method is expected to allow the monitoring of potential metastatic cancer cell changes, thus preventing the emergence and the transmission of disease, and improving the diagnosis of cancer.

Biomechanical measurement and analysis of colchicine-induced effects on cells by nanoindentation using an atomic force microscope

Colchicine is a drug commonly used for the treatment of gout, however, patients may sometimes encounter side-effects induced by taking colchicine, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and kidney failure. In this regard, it is imperative to investigate the mechanism effects of colchicine on biological cells. In this paper, we present a method for the detection of mechanical properties of nephrocytes (VERO cells), hepatocytes (HL-7702 cells) and hepatoma cells (SMCC-7721 cells) in culture by atomic force microscope (AFM) to analyze the 0.1u202fμg/mL colchicine-induced effects on the nanoscale for two, four and six hours. Compared to the corresponding control cells, the biomechanical properties of the VERO and SMCC-7721 cells changed significantly and the HL-7702 cells did not considerably change after the treatment when considering the same time period. Based on biomechanical property analyses, the colchicine solution made the VERO and SMCC-7721 cells harder. We conclude that it is possible to reduce the division rate of the VERO cells and inhibit the metastasis of the SMCC-7721 cells. The method described here can be applied to study biomechanics of many other types of cells with different drugs. Therefore, this work provides an accurate and rapid method for drug screening and mechanical analysis of cells in medical research.

Compensation of the magnetic force imaging by scanning directions

It was found that the results of magnetic force microscope (MFM) imaging were different with the probe scanning directions. This paper studied the effect of scanning directions on the MFM imaging, and a method for the distortion compensation was proposed to reduce the errors. In the study, three different scanning directions with the angles of 0°, 45° and 90° were used to measure the magnetic domain structures distributions of magnetic sample. The experimental results have shown that the scanning direction parallel to the magnetic domain structure will cause a minimum phase shift difference and lead to a structure distortion. A method for compensating the distortions was proposed. With this method, the distorted structures were corrected and the effect of scanning directions on the MFM imaging was significantly reduced. This work provides a way for the acquisition of the correct images of magnetic structures using an MFM and the improvement of imaging quality in a wide range of MFM applications.

DNA network structures induced by ferric ions on mica surfaces

This paper explores the changes of DNA network structures with different solution concentrations of DNAs and ferric ions by atomic force microscope (AFM). AFM is a powerful tool for both the observation and manipulation of biological molecules. DNA is an important life molecule to record the biological information and it is also a natural nano material which has great potential for the fabrication of molecular devices. The mica with a flat surface can be used as a substrate for observing DNA molecules, but the combination with DNA is not controllable, and the mica surface has to be modified. Here, we used ferric ions to induce DNA network structures and they were investigated by AFM. It was observed that when the concentration of DNA solution was low, there was no DNA network structures formed, and when the concentration of DNA solution was increased to 200–280ng/ul, DNA network structures were clearly formed.

Effect of curing time on cell structures

In this paper, the HL7702 cells were cured with 4% paraformaldehyde for different time durations. The atomic force microscope (AFM) and atomic force acoustic microscope (AFAM) were used to observe the surface and subsurface properties of the cured cells. The structures of the cells were changed with the curing time including the cytoskeleton, the shape, the height and the roughness of the cells. The lamellipodium can be seen for the curing time of 15 minutes with 4% paraformaldehyde. The optimal curing time was 15 minutes. This work provides a method for the study of cured cells in biomedicine.