Aspiration of biological viscoelastic drops

K. Guevorkian (1) , M.-J. Colbert (2) , Mélanie Durth (3, 4) , S. Dufour (5) , F. Brochard-Wyart (1)

1 PCC - Physico-Chimie-Curie
2 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Hamilton, ON]
3 LadHyX - Laboratoire d'hydrodynamique
4 Departamento de Ingenería Aeroespacial y Mecánica de Fluidos
5 CDC - Compartimentation et dynamique cellulaires

Spherical cellular aggregates are in vitro systems to study the physical and biophysical properties of tissues. We present a novel approach to characterize the mechanical properties of cellular aggregates using a micropipette aspiration technique. We observe an aspiration in two distinct regimes: a fast elastic deformation followed by a viscous flow. We develop a model based on this viscoelastic behavior to deduce the surface tension, viscosity, and elastic modulus. A major result is the increase of the surface tension with the applied force, interpreted as an effect of cellular mechanosensing. © 2010 The American Physical Society.

Domains: Fluid mechanics [physics.class-ph]; Fluids mechanics [physics.class-ph]

K. Guevorkian, M.-J. Colbert, Mélanie Durth, S. Dufour, F. Brochard-Wyart. Aspiration of biological viscoelastic drops. Physical Review Letters, 2010, 104 (May), pp.218101. ⟨10.1103/physrevlett.104.218101⟩. ⟨hal-01020626⟩