Biomechanical Property Changes of Hepatocytes in Response to Alcohol Detected by Atomic Force Microscope

Abstract

Hepatocyte injury caused by alcohol stimulation is the main cause of alcoholic liver disease (ALD). In order to understand the damage mechanism of alcohol, the changes of cells were quantitatively characterized. In this work, alcoholic hepatocyte injury was studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results showed that the height of hepatocytes was increased under the action of alcohol. Meanwhile, the adhesion and elastic modulus of cells were decreased. There is a close relationship between the cell structure, morphology and biophysical properties.