Mechano-mimetic cell culture.
Traction Force Microscopy.
Cell-contractile forces generated by the actomyosin cytoskeleton and transmitted to the extracellular matrix (ECM) drive cell adhesion, spreading, and migration. These forces are known to be critical during embryo morphogenesis, wound healing, immune response as well as pathological processes, such as cancer metastasis. Traction force microscopy (TFM) is a recognized experimental technique that measures the surface forces, also termed as tractions, that cells exert on a substrate. It relies on the computational analysis of the direction and the magnitude of elastic substrate deformations to reconstruct cell-generated traction forces. These deformations can be tracked and quantified by recording the displacement of fluorescent beads embedded in the substrate, as a result of the mechanical stress induced by an adherent cell.