AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Biomaterial Interfaces Tuesday Sessions
       Session BI-TuP

Paper BI-TuP15
Dimensional Analysis of Living Cells in Liquid by Scanning Probe Microscopy

Tuesday, November 14, 2006, 6:00 pm, Room 3rd Floor Lobby

Session: Biomaterial Interfaces Poster Session
Presenter: Y.-J. Kim, Myongji University, Korea
Authors: Y.-J. Kim, Myongji University, Korea
H.-D. Kim, Seoul National University, Korea
K.-H. Lee, Seoul National University, Korea
J. Kim, Myongji University, Korea
Y.J. Choi, Myongji University, Korea
Y.-S. Kim, Myongji University, Korea
C.J. Kang, Myongji University, Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
Recent advances in atomic force microscopy (AFM) allow us to determine fine structures of biological materials even under physiological liquids. Divers cancer tissues are well established to have their own structural identity defined as fractal dimension when they are growing in vivo. The dimensionality of these tissues is thought to reflect their invasiveness and malignancy. However, the fractional dimension of living cells has not been elucidated and may be largely attributed to the technical limitations of conventional imaging tools such as optical microscopy and surface electron microscopy. In this work, we have identified fractional dimension of breast cancer cells (MCF7) and normal breast epithelial cells (MCF10A) derived from the same origin. Using AFM technique, high-resolution surface images of living cells were obtained from both MCF7 cells and MCF10A cells under physiological conditions. AFM images of cells showed finer structure of cell boundary compared with SEM images after fixation. Box-counting analysis of its boundary have defined fractal dimension of each cell line. These results suggest that AFM imaging is a feasible tool for analyzing surface structures of living cells with high resolution, and could provide new insights into cell surface structure.