Europa Press Madrid

Madrid

Updated Tuesday,16January2024 - 11:15

A CSIC research team has shown that living cells, specifically human breast epithelial cells, exhibit mechanical resonances, a phenomenon previously considered implausible due to the extraordinary viscosity and complexity of cells in physiological environments, this could serve to detect diseases such as cancer.

The results of this pioneering study, obtained by researchers from the Bionanomechanics group of the Institute of Micro and Nanotechnology, have been published in the journal 'PRX Life'.

The study builds on the work of Eugene Ackerman in the 1950s, who first proposed the idea of mechanical resonances in living cells. However, their findings were largely overlooked due to a lack of solid experimental evidence. This new research validates Ackerman's predictions, providing substantial experimental evidence for the existence of these resonances.

The researchers used optical techniques to analyse the fluctuations commonly called noise of a micro-trampoline made of silicon technology, on which a human cell had adhered.

"The analysis of the noise of the micro-trampoline, equivalent to erratic displacements of the order of 10-12 meters (a tenth of the size of an atom) revealed that the cell was capable of vibrating in a specific way at frequencies that could vary between 20 and 200 kHz," explains researcher Javier Tamayo, who led the study. "This phenomenon has been observed in human breast epithelial cells and breast cancer cells," he adds.

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This finding "has far-reaching implications for understanding the role these vibrations play in human cells and how they are modified by cancer." "The method has potential for cell identification, but improvements in the accuracy of the method are needed and are currently being addressed," he says.

"These advances could lead to new approaches to live cell vibration spectrometry and potentially revive the idea of destroying cancer cells using focused ultrasonic waves."

Emerging research is beginning to reveal the effect of mechanical vibrations in the low-frequency range, 1-100 Hz, on cellular behavior. The precise mechanisms through which these vibrations exert their effects are still being explored, but the findings to date suggest a complex interplay between mechanical forces and cell biology.

"Our findings open new avenues for future research on the impact of mechanical resonance imaging on cell survival, proliferation, and migration, which are critical aspects of cell biology and cancer disease," concludes Tamayo.