應用磁鑷子研究細胞對於外力的反應

Abstract

細胞的運動和生長機制，其重要性不僅在於細胞生物學的領域，更可以應用在組織工程、細胞的培養與分化、癌症的治療等，是一個重要的課題，但是至今仍尚未被完全了解。關於細胞力學(cell mechanics)的研究，有助於了解細胞運動和生長機制，使我們對於細胞乃至於生物系統有更進一步的認識。研究細胞力學的方法之一，就是對細胞施加某種形式的外力，藉由觀察細胞對於外力的反應，來推測細胞內部的種種機制。在本實驗中，我們應用磁鑷子來對NIH/3T3纖維母細胞施加一個單點的外在機械力，利用保溫系統維持細胞的正常情況，然後長時間觀察和分析細胞對於外力的反應及行為，統計其結果並與控制組的結果做比較。我們期望利用實驗中所觀察到的現象，來歸納出外力對於細胞的影響，從中得到其與細胞運動和生長機制的關聯性，使我們對於生物系統有更進一步的了解。

The study of the mechanism of cell motility and cell growth can help us understand more about cell biology. It can also be applied to the research of tissue engineering, cell culture and differentiation, and cancer therapy. The mechanism behind is, however, still not completely understood. We hope, through the investigation of cell mechanics, to learn more about cell biology, and to gain more insight into the mechanism behind. In our experiment, we first set up a temperature-controlled chamber on the microscope, to support long-term observation of living cells. We then used the magnetic tweezer to apply an external mechanical force on NIH/3T3 fibroblast cells. Finally, we characterized and quantified the cell responses. After examining and analyzing the influences of external stress on cells, we tried to find some relationship between external force and cell motility, in order to further our understanding of cell biology.