Magnetic tensiometer
Magnetic cells can be remotely stimulated by magnets. Magnetic forces are volume forces that can be considered equivalent to a supergravity. The approach of a magnet thus deforms magnetic multicellular aggregates. Using a fluid approach, a surface tension is defined for model tissues that can be extracted from flattened profile of multicellular aggregates submitted to magnetic forces [1].
Surface tension is impacted both by cell-cell adhesion modifications and by changes of cellular mechanics. Actin filaments and intermediate filaments reveal as modifying surface tension [2].
Surface tension is changing during malignant transformation and accross epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) thus promoting it to a potential marker of tumoral state as adhesion, migration and invasion [3].
Magnetic rheometer
When magnetic forces is temporaly controlled, dynamical behavior of the multicellular aggregates can be explored.
Multicellular aggregates mechanics is reminiscent of the one observed at the cellular scale but surprisingly multicellular aggregates are much softer [4]. The magnetic rheometer open the way to an exploration of model tissues dynamical properties.
[1] Mazuel F. et al. (2015) Phys. Rev. Lett.
[2] Nagle et al. (2021) bioXriv
[3] Nagle I. et al. (2022) Frontiers in Cell and Dev. Biol.
[4] Mary G. et al. (2022) Phys. Rev. E
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