Atomic force microscopy imaging of living cells: a preliminary study of the disruptive effect of the cantilever tip on cell morphology

Recent studies have demonstrated that atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a potential tool for studying important dynamic cellular processes in real time. However, the interactions between the cantilever tip and the cell surface are not well understood, and the disruptive effect of the cantilever tip on cell morphology has not been well characterized. In this study, the disruptive effect of the scanning cantilever tip on cell morphology, in the AFM contact mode, has been investigated. The aims of this study are to identify what kinds of cell morphological changes generally occurred under normal AFM imaging conditions and to find out how long cells remain viable during scanning. Two cell lines, SK–N–SH (human neuroblastoma cells) and AV12 (Syrian hamster cells) were studied in the experiment because these are widely used in biomedical research as an expression system for studying cellular functions of neuronal receptors. The experimental results suggest that the sensitivity of cells to the cantilever disruptive effect is dependent on cell type and that there are patterns observed in the changes of cell morphology induced by the cantilever force in these two cell lines.