Observations of liver cancer cells in scanning probe acoustic microscope: a preliminary study

Abstract

Scanning probe acoustic microscope (SPAM) can be used to acquire the morphology image as well as the non-destructive internal structures acoustic image. However, the observations of the morphology image as well as the internal structures acoustic image of liver cancer cells in SPAM are few. In this paper, we cultured 4 different types of liver cancer cells on the silicon wafer and coverslip to observe their morphology images as well as acoustic images in SPAM, and made a preliminary study of the 8 types of cells specimens (hereinafter referred to as the silicon specimens and coverslips specimens). The experimental measurement results showed that some cellular pseudopodium were observed in the morphology images of the coverslip specimens while no such cellular pseupodium were appeared in the morphology images of the silicon specimens, which concluded that the living liver cancer cells were less likely to grow on the silicon wafer. SPAM provides a rapid and sensitive visual method for studying the morphology and internal structures of the cancer cells. The proposed method can be also used to obtain the morphology and internal information in both solid and soft material wafers, such as silicon and cells, with the resolution of nanometer scale.