Elasticity of living cells on a microarray during the early stages of adhesion measured by atomic force microscopy

The number distribution of the elastic modulus of fibroblast Cells Was successfully measured during the early stages of adhesion using an atomic force microscope (AFM) combined with a microarray as a substrate, which allowed us to arrange and Culture cells so that a large number of cells could be measured in a short time period. We confirmed that the cells deposited in the wells of the microarray could be cultured for at least 12 h without any significant migration. Histograms of the Young's modulus. E. of the cells during the early stages of adhesion produced from force curve measurements of cells (n congruent to 300) cultured for 3-9 h were well fitted to a log-normal distribution function. With increasing incubation time, the average value of E increased significantly, while the standard deviation of the distribution remained almost constant. The results are discussed in terms of the cytoskeleton inside cells.