Single-Cell Mechanical Characterization Service of Macrophages

Mechanical Properties of Macrophages

Macrophages are immune cells that function mechanically. They play a critical role in various physiological processes, such as defending against pathogens and aiding in tissue repair. Understanding their mechanical behavior is essential for comprehending their functionality, but this aspect remains poorly explored, particularly regarding different subtypes of macrophages. Accordingly, Creative Biolabs has successfully delivered a single-cell mechanical characterization service of macrophages to elucidate their mechanical properties for a more comprehensive understanding of their functions.

Fig.1 Variety of macrophages.¹

Single-Cell Mechanical Characterization Service of Macrophages at Creative Biolabs

Exploring the mechanical properties of macrophages could uncover a crucial understanding of their roles in overall well-being and illnesses, while also unveiling innovative indicators of immune activation and disease. Creative Biolabs integrates several complementary single-cell mechanical spectroscopy techniques to characterize whole macrophages and even their unique subpopulations.

Importantly, we provide a series of single-cell mechanical characterization methods respectively targeting different locations of macrophages: cell surface, intracellular, and whole cell. Noteworthy, we also deliver a combination of different single-cell mechanical characterization methods to analyze the subpopulation of macrophages. With our robust macrophage therapeutic development platforms, we are confident in presenting comparably comprehensive mechanical properties analysis of macrophages to aid in discovering novel biomarkers on macrophages.

Fig.2 Single-cell mechanical characterization approaches.²

Here we list several methods for single-cell mechanical characterization of macrophages to choose from for your meaningful macrophage projects:

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM): AFM is commonly used to measure the mechanical properties of local areas of cells such as the cell surface and nucleus.
Microfluidic Method (MM): MM is able to quantify a cell's ability to deform by controlling how long it takes the cell to pass through the channel and can enable non-contact, high-throughput measurements.
Micropipette Aspiration (MA): MA can measure the mechanical properties of different organelles (such as membranes and nuclei) and of entire cells.
Particle Tracking Microrheology (PTM): PTM is a passive method to measure the mechanical properties of single cells, which can obtain the mechanical phenotype of single cells in vivo without affecting cell viability, so it has a good application prospect.
Magnetic Twisting Cytometry (MTC) / Magnetic Tweezers (MTs): MTC and MTs can measure the mechanical properties of the cell surface and inside the cell, and with advances in magnetic bead control technology, these two methods can more fully characterize the mechanical properties of the cell, such as simultaneously measuring the mechanical properties of the cell surface and inside.
Parallel Plate Technology (PPT): PPT is suitable for high-precision measurement of Young's modulus, deformation capacity, relaxation, and creep function of single cells.
Optical Tensioner (OS) / Optical Tweezers (OTs): OS and OTs can measure the mechanical properties of cells without directly touching them and are capable of integrating with multimedia subsystems to enable high-precision and relatively high-throughput manipulation and measurement of single cells.
Acoustic Methods (AMs): AMs allow for high-throughput non-contact acquisition of single-cell mechanical phenotypes, as well as for cell separation based on cell mechanical properties such as deformability.

Popular Applications

Fig.3 Popular applications. (Creative Biolabs Original)

For more details about our single-cell mechanical characterization service of macrophages, please feel free to contact us. Welcome to receive your inquiry and order.

References

Cong, Yehao, et al. "Macrophages in aseptic loosening: Characteristics, functions, and mechanisms." Frontiers in Immunology 14 (2023): 1122057.
Evers, Tom MJ, et al. "Single‐Cell Mechanical Characterization of Human Macrophages." Advanced NanoBiomed Research 2.7 (2022): 2100133.