Tissue-dependent mechanosensing by cells derived from human tumors

The pan-cancer dataset provides a rich array of cellular physical measurements (spread area, shape (circularity and aspect ratio), cell stiffness, and motility) across 30 cell lines spanning 8 different tissue types on varying substrates which consist of polyacrylamide (PAAm) gels with elastic moduli of 500 Pa or 30 kPa coated with either fibronectin (500 Pa FN, 30 kPa FN) or collagen I (500 Pa Coll, 30 kPa Coll), cross-linked hyaluronic acid gels with elastic modulus of 500 Pa or less coated with fibronectin (HA FN) or collagen I (HA Coll), or glass slides. Out of the 30 cell lines, 25 are cancer cell lines and 5 are immortalized but non-malignant (normal) cell lines. Live cell imaging at 24 hours was used to measure cell area, aspect ratio, and circularity. Cell stiffness was assessed using atomic force microscopy, yielding measurements of Young’s modulus. Motility was quantified by tracking individual single cells during time lapse movies.Paper reference: Parihar, K., Nukpezah, J., Iwamoto, D.V. et al. Tissue-dependent mechanosensing by cells derived from human tumors. npj Biol. Phys. Mech. 2, 19 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44341-025-00023-5