Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 9: Poster Session Ib

BP 9.11: Poster

Monday, March 18, 2024, 18:00–20:30, Poster D

Interpretation of cell mechanical experiments in microfluidic systems depends on cellular shape descriptors — •Bob Fregin, Doreen Biedenweg, and Oliver Otto — Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Mechanical properties of cells are known to be linked to cell state, fate, and function. For identifying and tracking cells, as well as quantifying their deformations, it is crucial to accurately characterize cell shapes. While various shape descriptors have been explored for studying adherent cell morphology, their impact on rheological experiments involving suspended cells remains less understood. Here, we compared nine shape descriptors to quantify suspended cell deformation under extensional and shear flow in a microfluidic system using dynamic real-time deformability cytometry. Our findings reveal that while stress relaxation depends on stress amplitude and duration, steady-state deformation can be predicted from single-cell traces, even for short translocation times. By comparing data analysis strategies, we explored the balance between computational costs and experimental accuracy. Our results suggest that such measurements are feasible on an ensemble scale when the characteristic time matches the microfluidic system's dimensions. Additionally, we introduced a scoring method to evaluate shape descriptor-dependent effects on cell deformation after cytoskeletal modifications. We found that analyzing cells in extensional flow offers higher sensitivity, irrespective of shape parameterization, while inverse Haralick's circularity is more suited for studying cells in shear flow.

Keywords: Cell rheology; Microfluidics; Deformability cytometry; Viscoelasticity; Shape descriptors