Study of the mechanical properties of single cells as biocomposites by atomic force microscopy

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a unique method to study a single cell surface layer as a biocomposite. This chapter focuses on the advantages of two AFM modes, namely force spectroscopy (providing the information about local elastic properties of cells) and lateral force microscopy (LFM, revealing mechanical heterogeneity of cells surface), to make quantitative analysis of single cells mechanical properties. We demonstrate that LFM parameters (averaged lateral forces and roughness of lateral force map) of single cells (erythrocytes and thymocytes) change under the oxidative stress, with temperature changing and fixing cytoskeleton structure with glutaraldehyde and reflect the state (structural and relaxational) of cortical cytoskeleton. Based on force spectroscopy data we illustrate the difference between elastic behavior of the human embryonic fibroblasts cells and the cells of human lung adenocarcinoma cell line (A549), which can be related to the difference in the cytoskeleton structure of cells.