An experimental study on imaging burkitt´s lymphoma cells by atomic force microscope

Burkitt´s lymphoma (BL) is a highly aggressive malignant tumor with high morbidity rate in children. Patients have different responses to the same therapy due to the molecular heterogeneity. Detailed observation of the surface structure of BL cells to locate the specific receptors (CD20) on the cell surface and measure the binding force between the CD20s and their cognate ligands (Rituximab) may give people a further understanding to BL cell´s intrinsic properties and provide complementary approaches for the next generation of drug research and development. In this paper, we give an experimental study on how to obtain the morphology images of the BL cells both in air and liquid with atomic force microscope (AFM). The detailed procedures such as sample preparation of BL cells, parameter setting of AFM and so on, are presented, and the experimental results illustrate that the morphology image of the BL cell can be obtained in air or liquid respectively by using AFM.