Rapid Plastic Deformation of Cancer Cells Correlates with High Metastatic Potential

Metastasis plays a crucial role in tumor development, however, lack of quantitative methods to characterize the capability of cells to undergo plastic deformations has hindered the understanding of this important process. Here, a microfluidic system capable of imposing precisely controlled cyclic deformation on cells and therefore probing their viscoelastic and plastic characteristics is developed. Interestingly, it is found that significant plastic strain can accumulate rapidly in highly invasive cancer cell lines and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from late-stage lung cancer patients with a characteristic time of a few seconds. In constrast, very little irreversible deformation is observed in the less invasive cell lines and CTCs from early-stage lung cancer patients, highlighting the potential of using the plastic response of cells as a novel marker in future cancer study. Furthermore, author showed that the observed irreversible deformation should originate mainly from cytoskeleton damage, rather than plasticity of the cell nucleus.

Automated summary

Metastasis plays a crucial role in tumor development, but a lack of quantitative methods to study the plastic deformation of cells has hindered our understanding. In this study, a microfluidic system is developed to impose controlled cyclic deformation on cells, allowing the investigation of their viscoelastic and plastic characteristics. It is found that highly invasive cancer cells and late-stage lung cancer circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can rapidly accumulate significant plastic strain, while less invasive cell lines and early-stage lung cancer CTCs show minimal irreversible deformation. These findings highlight the potential of using the plastic response of cells as a novel marker in future cancer research, with the observed irreversible deformation mainly originating from cytoskeleton damage rather than cell nucleus plasticity.