Probing Biomechanical Noise in Neuroblastoma Cells using the Quartz Crystal Microbalance

Quantifying cellular behavior by motility and morphology changes are increasingly important in formulating an understanding of fundamental physiological phenomena and disease mechanisms such as cancer. However, cells are complex biological units which often respond to external environmental factors by manifesting subtle responses that may be difficult to quantify using conventional biophysical measurements. This paper describes the adaptation of the Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to the quantitative study of neuroblastoma cells under environmental stress wherein the frequency stability of the device can be co-related to changes in cellular state. It is seen that when neuroblastoma cells are seeded on to the sensor surface, a distinct variation in the pattern of frequency fluctuations is recorded, which can be attributed to the biomechanical noise originating from the cells. By employing time domain analysis of the resulting frequency fluctuations we study cellular motility and differentiate between different cell states induced by applied external heat stress for the SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line. The changes in the frequency fluctuation data are correlated to phenotypical physical response recorded using optical microscopy under identical conditions of environmental stress. Our study shows that this technique can provide new insight into the physical behavior of cells by providing a basis to quantify the associated biomechanical noise paving the way for its use in monitoring cell activity, and intrinsic motility and morphology changes, as well as those resulting from the action of drugs, toxins and environmental stress.