Measurement of shear force and adhesion force of a single adhesion cell using atomic force microscopy with a self-sensitive cantilever

In this paper, we investigated adhesion force of a single cell on an extracellular matrix (ECM) by measuring shear force and detachment energy. As the ECM, fibronectin (FN) was employed. To measure the shear force, we have a developed direct measurement system based on atomic force microscopy (AFM). An AFM microcantilever was mounted vertically with respect to a substrate, and a single cell on the substrate was laterally pushed and dragged by the cantilever until the cell was detached from the substrate. From the deflection of the cantilever during the cell detachment, the shear force was measured. Furthermore, to measure cell adhesion force, the cantilever was mounted horizontally with respect to the substrate, and a single cell was vertically pulled up. The measurement techniques will be used to compare and discuss the difference between the shear force and adhesion force.