Development of method for evaluating cell hardness and correlation between bacterial spore hardness and durability

摘要

BackgroundDespite the availability of conventional devices for making single-cell manipulations, determining the hardness of a single cell remains difficult. Here, we consider the cell to be a linear elastic body and apply Young’s modulus (modulus of elasticity), which is defined as the ratio of the repulsive force (stress) in response to the applied strain. In this new method, a scanning probe microscope (SPM) is operated with a cantilever in the “contact-and-push” mode, and the cantilever is applied to the cell surface over a set distance (applied strain).