Optical tweezers study of membrane fluidity in small cell lung cancer cells

The fluidity of the cell membrane is closely related to cancer metastasis/invasion. To test the relationship of membrane fluidity and invasiveness, we first demonstrated that transfection of small RNA miR-92b-3p can significantly increase invasiveness of the small cell lung cancer cell line SHP77. Then optical tweezers were used to measure membrane fluidity. This study employed continuous and step-like stretching methods to examine fluidity changes in SHP77 cell membranes before and after miR-92b-3p transfection. A newly developed physical model was used to derive the effective viscosity and static tension of the cell membrane from relaxation curves obtained via step-like stretching. Experiments showed that invasiveness and fluidity increased significantly after miR-92b-3p transfection. This study paved the way toward a better understanding of cancer cell invasion and membrane mechanical characteristics. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

The study demonstrated that transfection of miR-92b-3p significantly increased invasiveness and membrane fluidity of SHP77 cells. By using optical tweezers and a newly developed physical model, the research laid the groundwork for a better understanding of cancer cell invasion and membrane mechanical characteristics.