Nano-mechanical and biochemical characterization of different subtypes of breast cells using atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy

Combining atomic force microscopy (AFM) with Raman spectroscopy (RS), three different subtypes of breast cell lines, including metastatic cancer cells (MDA-MB-231), non-malignant cancer cells (MCF-7) and benign cells (MCF-10A), were studied to compare their differences in nano-mechanical and biochemical properties. Based on AFM measurements, two cancerous cells were found to have a close elasticity modulus, but were significantly softer than that of their benign counterparts. Raman spectral analysis revealed that the data points for two cancerous cells were distinct with completely separated clusters. The results demonstrate that combined AFM and RS techniques could obtain information about the biomechanical and biochemical properties necessary to distinguish different subtypes of breast cancer cells. This will hold great promise for cancer detection at the single cell level.